Made in the USA, Vaclav Smil
Made in the USA, Vaclav Smil
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Made in the USA
The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing

Author: Vaclav Smil

Narrator: Adam Barr

Unabridged: 10 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/10/2022

Synopsis

In Made in the USA, Vaclav Smil powerfully rebuts the notion that manufacturing is a relic of predigital history and that the loss of American manufacturing is a desirable evolutionary step toward a pure service economy. Smil argues that no advanced economy can prosper without a strong, innovative manufacturing sector and the jobs it creates.

Smil explains how manufacturing became a fundamental force behind America's economic, strategic, and social dominance. He describes American manufacturing's rapid rise at the end of the nineteenth century, its consolidation and modernization between the two world wars, its role as an enabler of mass consumption after 1945, and its recent decline. Some economists argue that shipping low-value jobs overseas matters little because the high-value work remains in the United States. But, asks Smil, do we want a society that consists of a small population of workers doing high-value-added work and masses of unemployed?

Smil assesses various suggestions for solving America’s manufacturing crisis, including lowering corporate tax rates, promoting research and development, and improving public education. Will America act to preserve and reinvigorate its manufacturing? It is crucial to our social and economic well-being; but, Smil warns, the odds are no better than even.

About Vaclav Smil

Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of forty books, including Power Density: A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses and Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing, both published by the MIT Press. In 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2013 Bill Gates wrote on his website that "there is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil."

Reviews

Goodreads review by Chuck on February 08, 2014

Bill Gates recommended this book and I just finished Making in America: From Innovation to Market, so I decided to read this to follow-up. I recommend reading Making in America before this book. That book offers much more original content, using recent studies and surveys, and provides a greater foc......more

Goodreads review by Sivakumar on August 13, 2019

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Specially the last 30%. For an Industrial Designer like me working in China, I could see a lot of sense in what Smil is trying to tell in this book. I would say this as a very comprehensive and neutral outlook towards American manufacturing since it rise in the 19th c......more

Goodreads review by Noass on May 13, 2014

On top of all of the other pending dooms (climate change, partisan politics, Putin), Smil places the lack of manufacturing/loss of income parity/erosion of american supremacy prominently among my concerns. Highly detailed sociologic/economic history of manufacturing's role in the emergence of the US......more

Goodreads review by Rebecca on December 03, 2019

The book is full of facts and figures to bolster Smil's overall assessments of the background, evolution and current state of manufacturing in the USA. Unfortunately, the book was written and researched well before Donald Trump became president and Boeing's 737 MAX crisis, so the book's "now" is no......more

Goodreads review by Clay on February 20, 2018

American manufacturing is retreating and it's not just because of high US salaries from a 'strong' dollar. Our infrastructure (D rating overall), workforce training (80% of high schools students are not prepared for college), health care/taxes, labor unions that have hidden costs (pensions), and reg......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List