Small, Medium, Large: How Government Made the U.S. into a Manufacturing Powerhouse

Colleen Dunlavy's book explores how firms reached collective agreements on standard sizes, despite market forces blocking their diffusion. Without government promotion, the twentieth-century American variety of capitalism would have looked markedly less "Fordist."

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 29 August 2024
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd

We live in a world of seemingly limitless consumer choice, but many everyday goods are available in a finite number of "standard sizes." These sizes are agreed upon by competing firms to make or sell products with the same limited dimensions. However, how did firms reach such collective agreements? Colleen Dunlavy's book, "Small, Medium, Large: The History of Mass Production and Distribution in the United States," reveals that mass production techniques did not naturally diffuse throughout the U.S. economy. Market forces blocked their diffusion, but under the cover of collectively agreed-upon, industrywide standard sizes, competing firms were able to break free of market forces and transition to mass production and distribution. Without government promotion of standard sizes, the twentieth-century American variety of capitalism would have looked markedly less "Fordist." This book is available as an audiobook.

Weight: 434g
Dimension: 223 x 146 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781509561735