Mira Wilkins

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Office: DM 316, (305) 348-3281

E-Mail

PhD: Cambridge University, 1957
Joined the faculty in 1974
Fields: Economic and business history, history of foreign investment in the United States

Research Interests

Mira Wilkins is an economic and business historian. Her expertise is on the history of foreign investment, particularly on the history of multinational enterprise. She is the author of four Harvard University Press books: The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from the Colonial Era to 1914 (1970), The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from 1914 to 1970 (1974), The History of Foreign Investment in the United States to 1914 (1989), and The History of Foreign Investment in the United States, 1914-1945 (2004). Her most recent book (William Hausman, Peter Hertner, and Mira Wilkins), Global Electrification: Multinational Enterprise and International Finance in the History of Light and Power, 1878-2007, was published in 2008. A new edition (with a new introduction) of her 1964 book, American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2011. In addition, she has published other books and numerous scholarly articles. Her works are widely reviewed (to acclaim) and widely cited.

She is a past president of the Business History Conference and a fellow of the Academy of International Business. She is the recipient of many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, FIU's Outstanding University Professor Award, and the Business History Conference's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Selected Publications

"The History of Multinationals: A 2015 View," Business History Review, 89 (Autumn): 405-414 (2015).

American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents (by Mira Wilkins and Frank Ernest Hill). New Edition with New Introduction by Mira Wilkins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (2011).

Multinational Enterprise in Insurance: An Historical Overview, in Peter J. Buckley, ed., Business History and International Business. London: Routledge, Chap. 2, pp. 28-57, (2011).

The History of Multinational Enterprise, in Alan M. Rugman, ed., The Oxford Handbook of International Business, Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chap. 1, pp. 3-38, (2009).

US Business in Europe: An American Perspective, in Hubert Bonin and Ferry de Goey, eds., American Firms in Europe, 1880-1980: Strategy, Identity, Perception and Performance, Geneva: Librairie Droz, Chap. 2, pp. 35-67, (2009).

Global Electrification: Multinational Enterprise and International Finance in the History of Light and Power, 1878-2007 (by William Hausman, Peter Hertner, and Mira Wilkins). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (2008).

Disjunctive Sets? Business and Banking History, in Edwin Green and Monika Pohle Fraser, eds., The Human Factor in Banking History: Entrepreneurship, Management, Organization and Personnel, Athens: Alpha Bank, Chap. 6, pp. 147-167, (2008).

Chandler and Global Business History, Business History Review, 82 (Summer): 251-266, (2008).

Dutch Multinational Enterprises in the United States: An Historical Summary, Business History Review, 79 (Summer): 193-273 (2005).

Multinational Enterprise to 1930: Discontinuities and Continuities, Alfred D. Chandler and Bruce Mazlish, eds., Leviathans: Multinational Corporations and the New Global History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Chap. 2, pp. 45-79, (2005).

What is International Business? An Economic Historian’s View, in Peter J. Buckley, ed., What is International Business? Houndmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, Chap. 8, pp. 133-152, (2005)

The History of Foreign Investment in the United States, 1914-1945. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, (2004).

Multinational Corporations, in Joel Mokyr, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, 5 vols., New York: Oxford University Press, IV, pp. 13-16, (2003).

Conduits for Long-term Foreign Investment in the Gold Standard Era, in Marc Flandreau, Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich, and Harold James, eds., International Financial History in the Twentieth Century: System and Anarchy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Chap. 2, pp. 51-76, (2003).

Cosmopolitan Finance in the 1920s: New York's Emergence as a Financial Centre, in Richard Sylla, Richard Tilly, and G. Tortella, eds., The State, the Financial System, and Economic Modernization, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 271-291, (1999).

The Neglected Intangible Asset: The Influence of the Trade Mark on the Rise of the Modern Corporation, Business History, 34(1):66-95, (1992).