The Backdrop: Manufacturing’s Economic History
The Backdrop: Manufacturing’s Economic History
This chapter provides an overview of the critical developments in U.S. production history. It begins with the lessons from James Watt's famous “walk on the Green” of Glasgow. The chapter then turns to the nineteenth-century interchangeable machine-made parts paradigm in the United States, nurtured through early War Department technology policy. This technology advance escalates through the nineteenth century into the snowstorm of true mass production, leveraging the scale advantage of the world's first continent-sized market. The story then turns to the defense innovation system. The defense innovation system subsequently birthed the foundational technologies behind the information technology innovation wave that evolved through the second half of the twentieth century. Importantly, this defense innovation role, which had its roots in production, by the mid-twentieth century had shifted almost exclusively to technologies, not the production systems behind them. This innovation/production disconnect had dramatic subsequent effects on U.S. manufacturing.
Keywords: U.S. production, James Watt, interchangeable machine-made parts, technology policy, mass production, defense innovation system, information technology, U.S. manufacturing
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