Richard Coopey lectures in history at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Previously he was Senior Research Fellow at the Business History Unit of the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests include the history of technology, banking, retailing, and water resources. Publications include 3i: Fifty Years Investing in Industry with D. Clarke (OUP, 1995), Britain in the 1970s: The Troubled Economy with N. Woodward (UCL, 1995), and Information Technology Policy: An International History (OUP, 2004).Sean O'Connell is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Ulster. His first monograph was The Car in British Society: Class, Gender and Motoring 1896-1939 (Manchester University Press, 1998). A second monograph (Class, Community, and Credit in the UK since 1880), drawing upon research financed by the ESRC, is currently being prepared for publication by Oxford University Press. O'Connell has also recently received funding from the Leverhulme Trust to investigate the history of joyriding, using Belfast as a case studyDilwyn Porter is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of History and International Studies at De Montfort University. He has published on aspects of business, media, and sports history in Business History, Business Archives, Contemporary British History, Media History, the International Review of Retailing, Distribution and Consumer Research and Sport in History. With Adrian Smith, he recently edited Sport and National Identity in the Post-War World (Routledge, 2004). He is currently writing Close to Power, a study of financial journalism in Britain since the late nineteenth century, for Oxford University Press.

Provides access to a fascinating aspect of British commercial history...This book is written in a clear and accessible language and provides a useful introduction to the history of mail order in Britain.

• Introduction ; 1. General Mail Order Retailing in Britain: Origins and Development to 1939 ; 2. The Evolution of Mail Order Retailing in Post-war Britain ; 3. Working Class Life, Consumer Credit, and the Making of Agency Mail Order ; 4. Mail Order Agency in Post-War Britain: The Agent, the Company, and the Consumer ; 5. Inside the Firm: Mail Order, Efficiency, and Rationalization - From Personal to Organizational Control ; 6. Disconnecting the Personal: Computers and Mail Order ; 7. The Next Shopping Revolution ; 8. Conclusion

Richard Coopey lectures in history at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Previously he was Senior Research Fellow at the Business History Unit of the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests include the history of technology, banking, retailing, and water resources. Publications include 3i: Fifty Years Investing in Industry with D. Clarke (OUP, 1995), Britain in the 1970s: The Troubled Economy with N. Woodward (UCL, 1995), and Information Technology Policy: An International History (OUP, 2004).Sean O'Connell is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Ulster. His first monograph was The Car in British Society: Class, Gender and Motoring 1896-1939 (Manchester University Press, 1998). A second monograph (Class, Community, and Credit in the UK since 1880), drawing upon research financed by the ESRC, is currently being prepared for publication by Oxford University Press. O'Connell has also recently received funding from the Leverhulme Trust to investigate the history of joyriding, using Belfast as a case studyDilwyn Porter is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of History and International Studies at De Montfort University. He has published on aspects of business, media, and sports history in Business History, Business Archives, Contemporary British History, Media History, the International Review of Retailing, Distribution and Consumer Research and Sport in History. With Adrian Smith, he recently edited Sport and National Identity in the Post-War World (Routledge, 2004). He is currently writing Close to Power, a study of financial journalism in Britain since the late nineteenth century, for Oxford University Press.

Provides access to a fascinating aspect of British commercial history...This book is written in a clear and accessible language and provides a useful introduction to the history of mail order in Britain.

• Introduction ; 1. General Mail Order Retailing in Britain: Origins and Development to 1939 ; 2. The Evolution of Mail Order Retailing in Post-war Britain ; 3. Working Class Life, Consumer Credit, and the Making of Agency Mail Order ; 4. Mail Order Agency in Post-War Britain: The Agent, the Company, and the Consumer ; 5. Inside the Firm: Mail Order, Efficiency, and Rationalization - From Personal to Organizational Control ; 6. Disconnecting the Personal: Computers and Mail Order ; 7. The Next Shopping Revolution ; 8. Conclusion