New Books Network How Government Made the U.S. into a Manufacturing Powerhouse
Nov 10, 2025
Colleen Dunlavy, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, dives into the fascinating role of the U.S. government in shaping manufacturing through standardization. She discusses how mid-sized firms influenced trade journals, shares intriguing stories about the lumber industry's standardization, and highlights pivotal figures like Shaw and Hoover. Colleen reveals how wartime needs shifted product variety to simplification, and she argues that government actions have significantly improved living standards. Plus, she teases her upcoming work on the history of corporations!
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
State Engineered Mass Production
- Standard sizes arose from government-led coordination, not natural market forces.
- Herbert Hoover’s Commerce Department organized industry-wide agreements to reduce risk for manufacturers.
Middling Firms Mattered Most
- Middling manufacturers dominated trade journals and shaped industry debates.
- These mid-sized firms often drove decisions about adopting standardized practices.
Shaw’s Rapid Wartime Initiative
- Arch Wilkinson Shaw created the wartime Conservation Division almost from scratch and pushed the idea of conserving resources.
- Shaw convened agencies and rapidly set up wartime programs that shaped later practice.
