From the American System to Mass Production 1800-1932; The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States

Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Fair. Format is approximately 7.25 inches by 10.25 inches. xxi, [3], 411, [5] pages. List of Figures. List of Tables. Illustrations. Footnotes. Appendix 1 and 2. Notes. Bibliography. Index. DJ is worn, torn, soiled and chipped. Minor edge soiling. This is one of the Studies in Industry and Society series. David Allen Hounshell (born 1950) is an American academic, and David M. Roderick Professor of Technology and Social Change in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Department of History, and the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. He is known for his work of the history of research and development and industrial research in the United States, particularly at DuPont. His From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932 was awarded the 1987 Dexter Prize by the Society for the History of Technology. In 2007 the Society for the History of Technology also awarded him its highest prize, the Leonardo da Vinci Medal. David A. Hounshell's widely acclaimed history explores the American "genius for mass production" and traces 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 of leading American firms, Hounshell demonstrates that the diffusion of arms production technology was neither as fast nor 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.