From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States (Studies in Industry and Society)
by: David Ho

Hardcover. Baltimore MD, Johns Hopkins University Press, 3rd pr., 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, gray cloth, 411 pages, b&w illustrations. Ex-lib with light stamping, residue to rear inside cover. Otherwise a clean, tight copy. David Hounshell explores the development of the 'American system' of manufacturing in the half century before the Civil War and the transition of this system into the 'mass production' of the 20th century. Hounshell explores the important role of individuals in the diffusion and development of production technology and the central place of marketing strategy in the success of selected American manufactures. While Ford Motor company was the seabed of the assembly line revolution, General Motors initiated the new era of annual model change. With the new marketing strategy, the technology of 'the changeover' became of paramount importance. Hounshell chronicles how painfully Ford learned this lesson with the change from the Model T to the Model A and then to the V-8 in 1932.