by SaulGellerman (1963)

Much has been learned since 1963, but this is an excellent overview of the scientific research on motivation up to that time. This book is out of print but it must have been popular in its day (my copy is from the sixteenth printing). His later book MotivationInTheRealWorld does not go into detail on the history of this research.

Includes chapters on Elton Mayo and the "Hawthorne experiments" (which were known to be flawed, even at the time), and the work of William F Whyte, Chris Argyris, Douglas MacGregor, and David McClelland, among others-- if you're interesed in human motivation and you don't recognize these names, you really should track down a copy of this book.

----
CategoryBook CategoryMotivation