From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932

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 expresssion "mass production" and the technology that lay behind it were developments of the twentieth century, attributable in large part to the Ford Motor Company