From Monopoly to Competition: The Transformations of Alcoa, 1888-1986. George David Smith (Cambridge University Press, 1988). When Charles Martin Hall patented the process for refining aluminum in 1886, no one was sure the new technology would be a business success. Besides problems of technology, capital, and labor, there was the need to develop markets for what was then a novelty product. George David Smith examines how ALCOA met these challenges, with special attention to innovation, to become one of the most successful monopolies in American history.

Review – “ . . . brilliantly organized and uncommonly well written . . . From Monopoly to Competition is thus one of those rare books that can be read with profit by corporate executives (within the aluminum business and beyond) and academics.." – Journal of Economic History

Review – “ . . . a splendid history of Alcoa . . . Yet this is no mere book by recipe. In addition to many conventional virtues, the author provides some delightful bonuses: a deft capsule history of the rise of big business and its regulation; a primer on the economies of oligopoly; an informed assessment of recent American industrial decline; and a substantial analysis of Alcoa's workforce and labor relations . . . Overall, Smith's book invites comparison with the very best institutional studies." – Thomas K. McGraw, American Historical Review

“Historical Perspectives on the Use of High Yield Securities in Corporate Creation: A Hundred Years of Financing and Reshaping America's Industries,” Robert Sobel (1989).

Trammel Crow, Master Builder: The Story of America's Largest Real Estate Empire. Robert Sobel (John Wiley & Sons, 1989).

“The Bell-Western Union Patent Agreement of 1879: A Study in Corporate Imagination,” George David Smith in Readings in the Management of Innovation, ed. Michael L. Tushman and William L. Moore (Ballinger, 1988).

Timken: From Missouri to Mars-A Century of Leadership in Manufacturing. Bettye H. Pruitt (1988).

Alcoa and Westmoreland County: A Productive Past, A Positive Future. Bettye H. Pruitt (1986).

Donnelley and the Yellow Pages: The Birth of an Advertising Medium. Bettye H. Pruitt (1986).

The Entrepreneurs: An American Adventure. Robert Sobel and David B. Sicilia (Martin Sandler Productions, 1986).

RCA and the Videodisc:The Business of Research. Margaret B. W. Graham (Cambridge University Press, 1986).

“Alcoa Goes Back to the Future”, in Across the Board. George David Smith and John Wright (September 1986).

“Charles Martin Hall, Francis C. Frary, and the Rise of Alcoa Laboratories”, Research Management, George David Smith and Bettye H. Pruitt (Industrial Research Institute, 1986).

“The Corporate Management of Innovation: Alcoa Research, Aircraft Alloys, and the Problem of Stress Corrosion Cracking,” Bettye H. Pruitt and George David Smith, in Research on Technological Innovation, Management, and Policy, ed. Richard S. Rosenbloom (JAI Press, 1986).

The Anatomy of a Business Strategy: Bell, Western Electric, and the Origins of the American Telephone Industry. George David Smith (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985). Co-winner, American Publishers Association prize for Best Book on Business and Industry (1985).

From Invention to Innovation: Long Distance Telephone Transmission at the Turn of the Century. Neil H. Wasserman (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985). Co-winner, American Publishers Association prize for Best Book on Business and Industry (1985).

Enterprise and Technology: A Brief History of LKC, Inc. David Grayson Allen (1984).

“The Present Value of Corporate History,” George David Smith and Laurence Steadman, Harvard Business Review (1981).