Keller, William W(alton) 1950-

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KELLER, William W(alton) 1950-

PERSONAL: Born 1950. Education: Princeton University, graduate; Cornell University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Cambridge University Press, 40 West 20th St., New York, NY 10011-4211.

CAREER: Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, analyst.

WRITINGS:

The Liberals and J. Edgar Hoover: Rise and Fall of a Domestic Intelligence State, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1989.

Arm in Arm: The Political Economy of the Global Arms Trade, Basic Books (New York, NY), 1995.

(With Paul N. Duremus, Louis W. Pauly, and Simon Reich) The Myth of the Global Corporation, Princeton University Press, (Princeton, NJ), 1999.

(With Richard J. Samuels) Crisis and Innovation in Asian Technology, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: William W. Keller, an analyst for the former Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, has written several books exploring the political side of military and business development.

Keller's first book, The Liberals and J. Edgar Hoover: Rise and Fall of a Domestic Intelligence State, argues that while the FBI was criticized for its ultraconservative focus, it actually grew up in the liberal political establishment; thus, the book concludes, the two political forces are necessarily intertwined. S. K. Hauser, in a review for Choice, felt that "This book offers a viewpoint that will be challenged by many. The text, however, is often tedious: the extensive accompanying footnotes are often more revealing."

Keller's next volume, Arm in Arm: The Political Economy of the Global Arms Trade, offers an analysis of post-Cold War armament. Foreign Affairs reviewer Eliot Cohen wrote that the book "is worth . . . a close reading." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly found the book "incisive and accessible."

Keller's The Myth of the Global Corporation, written with Paul N. Doremus, Louis W. Pauly, and Simon Reich, argues that despite the common thought, the spread of international businesses does not reflect a globalized economy. Bruce Kogut, writing for the Harvard Business Review, applauded Keller's views: "[The authors] see enormous differences among multinational companies, which they trace to the unique political and economic characteristics of their home countries. When it comes to corporate behavior, the authors show convincingly that nationality is destiny. This is a timely and brave book, given the widespread view that globalization means convergence among nations and companies toward common ways of doing things."