Peoples & Things 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 and author, delves into how government initiatives shaped U.S. manufacturing. She discusses the critical role of standardization in enabling economies of scale, especially during wartime. Colleen highlights the impact of figures like Herbert Hoover on simplification practices and how these efforts influenced consumer goods. The conversation also touches on how pre-war product diversity gave way to standardized practices and later returned to variety amid post-war economic shifts.
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Mass Production Wasn't Inevitable
- Mass production didn't arise naturally; firms reverted to diverse production after learning mass techniques in WWI.
- Herbert Hoover's Commerce Department recreated wartime coordination to socialize risk and drive industry-wide standard sizes.
Research Opportunities On Standardization
- Scholars should pursue unanswered comparative and business-record questions raised by the standard sizes story.
- Dunlavy points to industries like lumber and cross-national comparisons as ripe for deeper archival work.
Midsize Firms Mattered Most
- Middling firms, not just giants or tiny shops, populated trade journals and drove practical adoption of standards.
- These medium-sized manufacturers were the main audience for simplification campaigns and trade association work.
