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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.

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1. The American System of Manufacures in the Antebellum Period
Chapter 2. The Sewing Machine and the American System of Manufactures
Chapter 3. Mass Production in American Woodworking Industries: A Case Study
Chapter 4. The McCormick Reaper Works and American Manufacturing Technology in the Nineteenth Century
Chapter 5. From the American System toward Mass Production: The Bicycle Industry in the Nineteenth Century
Chapter 6. The Ford Motor Company and the Rise of Mass Production in America
Chapter 7. Cul-de-sac: The Limits of Fordism and the Coming of "Flexible Mass Production"
Chapter 8. The Ethos of Mass Production and Its Critics
Appendix 1. The Evolution of the Expression The American System of Manufactures
Appendix 2. Singer Sewing Machine Artificial Analysis
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

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

Reviews

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