From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States (Studies in Industry and Society)

In his richly illustrated 'From the American System of Mass Production, David Hounshell explores the development of the 'American system' of manufacturing in the half century before the Civil War and the transition of this system into the 'mass production' of the 20th century.

Previous writers on the American system have implied or argued directly that the technical problems of mass production had been solved by antebellum arms makers, Hounshell argues, however, drawing upon the extensive business and manufacturing records of leading American firms...including Singer Manufacturing, McCormick Harvesting Machinery Co., Brown & Share Manufacturing, Pope Manufacturing, and Ford Motor Com...that the diffusion of arms production technology was neither as fast nor as smooth as has been assumed. Both the expression 'mass production' and the technology was that lay behind it were developments of the 20th C, attributable in large part to the Ford Motor Co.

Hounshell explores the important role of individuals in the diffusion and development of production technology and the central place of marketing strategy in the success of selected American manufactures. While Ford Motor company was the seebed of the assembly line revolution, General Motors initiated the new era of annual model change. With the new marketing strategy, the technology of 'the changeover' became of paramount importance. Hounshell chronicles how painfully Ford learned this lesson with the change from the Model T to the Model A and then to the V-8 in 1932.

"The history of technology at its very best. It is also a volume which has a great deal to interest the business historian... A superb study replete with new insights and eqully valuable in its parts as in their sum... This is an exciting book which deserves the highest praise." -- Business History

"David Hounshell's history of the evolution of American production methods has few rivals: in execution of the theme it has none... Both the armchair historian and the specialist in the history of technology will find this a highly readable and most informative work." -- Science