From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States (Studies in Industry and Society, 4) - Softcover

Hounshell, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080183158X ISBN 13: 9780801831584

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985

Synopsis

David A. Houndshell's widely acclaimed history explores the American "genius for mass production" and races its origins in the nineteenth-century "American system" of manufacture.

Previous writers on the American system have argued that the technical problems of mass production had been solved by armsmakers before the Civil War. Drawing upon the extensive business and manufacturing records if leading American firms, Hounshell demonstrates that the diffusion of arms production technology was neither as fast now as smooth as had been assumed. Exploring the manufacture of sewing machines and furniture, bicycles and reapers, he shows that both the expression "mass production" and the technology that lay behind it were developments of the twentieth century, attributable in large part to the Ford Motor Company.

Hounshell examines the importance of individuals in the diffusion and development of production technology and the central place of marketing strategy in the success of selected American manufacturers. Whereaas Ford was the seedbed of the assembly line revolution, it was General motors that initiated a new era with its introduction of the 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 and recounts how the successful mass production of automobiles led to the establishment of an "ethos of mass production," to an era in which propoments of "Fordism" argued that mass production would solve all of America's social problems.

About this title

About the Author

David A. Hounshell teaches history at the University of Delaware and is curator of technology at the Hagley Museum in Wilmington.

Edition details

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080183158X
• ISBN 13: 9780801831584
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 440