In the course of eight informative and entertaining chapters, Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, the author of Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry, explains how, in less than 80 years since gaining its independence, the United States grew from a colonial economy with very little domestic manufacturing to a global industrial player. The author’s narrative follows two specific industries—arms and textile manufacturing—highlighting how a fledgling U.S. government encouraged both. Regele details the people and firms involved in this process, as well as the technological developments they utilized.
The book’s introductory chapter opens with a quote from the final paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which explicitly declared the new nation’s power to “levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, [and] establish commerce.” Despite this assertion, the recently liberated colonies were ill equipped to supply a defense force or engage in trade independently of the British Empire and other European powers. In the late 18th century, any soldier fielded by the United States was likely to be issued a hand-me-down French rifle and a uniform manufactured in Great Britain; the country’s inability to produce these items domestically was a problem of national security.
The book’s first main chapter lays out a convincing case for one of the author’s core assertions: that the U.S. arms and textile industries were uniquely important to the nation’s postcolonial defense and economic stability. Regele brings up the famous plight of George Washington’s Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, when the Patriot troops suffered from a lack of sufficient armaments and suitable clothing. Wartime quotes from Washington and his contemporaries corroborate the author’s thesis, showing that the need to secure reliable sources of firearms and clothing was known even before the United States had won its independence.
The next chapter discusses the political activity that immediately followed the Revolutionary War and laid the groundwork for domestic industrialization. Not all members of the new republican government were keen on centrally organized economic policies, which led to vigorous debates and “mixed results” during this initial period. However, business owners, investors, and forward-thinking government officials continued to petition for federal support for manufacturing. The adoption of the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, along with the constitutional directives regarding an armed militia, formally pressured the government to look for ways to build up domestic arms manufacturing. Of similar importance was the creation of executive departments tasked with overseeing war, diplomacy, and finance. Federal armories were commissioned in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
The federal government did not initially bolster domestic textile manufacturing as it did arms manufacturing. However, the establishment of the U.S. Patent Office in 1802, which safeguarded the ability of inventors to benefit from their innovations, turned out to be crucial to the growth and development of independent textile firms, especially as the textile industry became increasingly mechanized. Privately owned textile companies rose and fell on the tides of inconsistent federal policies, but more effective government support was eventually provided.
The remaining four main chapters of the book are dedicated to the effects of specific events and regional pressures on the burgeoning U.S. manufacturing sector. Regele describes how U.S. leaders sought political and economic authority throughout the postcolonial era, explaining how diplomacy, expansionist policies, and international trade objectives intersected to help shape the development of U.S. manufacturing. The author examines, in turn, the War of 1812, the U.S. acquisition of Florida and the brutal war against the Seminole Indians, the Mexican–American War, and the fight for independence from Spain waged by countries in Central and South America. Each of these developments increased demand for arms, textiles, or both. The final chapter in this sequence discusses the U.S. policy of Manifest Destiny, which drove the nation’s expansion into the Pacific Northwest, where the United States began trading with Asia and engaged in diplomacy with Britain on relatively equal footing for the first time.
The book’s concluding chapter sums up the first 80 years of U.S. industrialization with this anecdote: “The United States was the only country at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1851 that did not subsidize its participants. Despite [the United States’] cavalier attitude toward the World’s Fair, however, its 534 exhibitors won a greater share of prizes than any other nation.” Prizes and praise were awarded to American-made black cloth, blankets, carpets, and Samuel Colt’s revolving pistols. The author includes quotes from World’s Fair attendees who were clearly impressed by the quality and innovation shown by American products. The United States had successfully transitioned, both in international perception and in absolute capability, from a group of agrarian colonies to a world-class industrial power.
Throughout her analysis of the nation’s early manufacturing efforts, Regele describes how personal relations between government and business leaders drove U.S. industrial development. The book includes many illustrative examples that highlight these relations. Erastus Bigelow, inventor of the power loom, was acquainted with Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and U.S. consul William Tudor. Eli Whitney, an arms maker and inventor of the cotton gin, knew Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott Jr., Colonel Decius Wadsworth, and other influential men who met with Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. In relaying these and similar examples, Regele describes a complex environment of social and business connections between the government and private sectors of the time.
One potential weakness of Manufacturing Advantage is its relatively limited scope, which focuses almost exclusively on the arms and textiles industries, despite there being other domestic industries that played important roles in U.S. manufacturing development during the postcolonial period. As an example, Regele mentions shipbuilding, but she does so only by comparing it with the less mature arms industry. The author explains that domestic shipbuilding remained successful after the Revolutionary War, describes how the U.S. Navy Department issued contracts with private shipbuilders, and contrasts this approach with that adopted in arms manufacturing, which “was not yet the developed industry that shipbuilding was.” The book might have been more informative had the author expanded further on the Navy’s relationship with shipbuilders or if she included other industries (e.g., railroad construction) in which the U.S. government and private companies shared common interests. Despite Regele’s limited focus on just two burgeoning manufacturing industries, her deep dive and innovative thesis proffer a rich historical context for these major drivers of U.S. industrialization.
The author’s choice to zero in on the arms and textiles industries allows her to present a more structured and concise narrative. Each chapter first introduces a historical period or a set of events and then, within that context, describes how the U.S. government interacted with the two industries. The book would undoubtedly have been more difficult to read if the author contrasted government actions across three or more industries at a time. Additionally, the juxtaposition of a martial industry such as arms production with a traditionally civilian industry such as textiles production encourages the reader to reach a deeper understanding of how domestic manufacturing affects national sovereignty and independence. This last point is a crucial component of Regele’s analysis.
Manufacturing Advantage provides a well-crafted examination of the nascent stages of American industrialization. At 167 pages, the book is not particularly long, but it is densely packed with historical examples and quotations. The United States was not always the industrial and trade heavyweight it is today. Regele presents a compelling origin story of that modern economy, and anyone interested in the topic would do well to read this book.
United States Department of Labor
