Book excerpt: With the advent of Thatcherism in the UK and Reaganomics in the USA, ‘industrial policy’ had become something of a discredited notion in the 1980s. The emphasis had shifted to programmes of deregulation, de-nationalization, and tax reform. The essays in this challenging and vigorous collection, first published in 1989, sprung from work that had been conducted in the USA, notably at the Harvard Business School, on reappraising the role of the public sector in industrial management. This American work suggested ways in which public sector and other bodies might have revitalized industrial life. This book is ideal for students of business and economics.