Manufacturing advantage : war, the state, and the origins of American industry, 1776-1848 / Lindsay Schakenbach Regele

Object Details

Contents: Introduction -- "Our naked troops" -- The political economy of guns and textiles -- Embargo and war -- Financing industry through Florida -- Managing new markets -- Industrial manifest destiny -- Conclusion
Summary: "The Revolutionary War has been won, and the newly independent nation is fraught with anxieties--threatened by enemies at home and abroad. In Manufacturing Advantage, Lindsay Schakenbach Regele shows how the government (especially the Departments of State and War) promoted industrial development--of textiles and weapons--to defend the new country from hostile armies and hostile imports. As it moves from the Revolutionary War through the Mexican-American War, Manufacturing Advantage examines the interconnected nature of arms and textile industries and how each developed to become a powerhouse of American industry. Regele calls the development of these industries "national security capitalism"--a mixed-enterprise system in which government agents and private producers brokered solutions to the problems of international economic disparities and war. In Regele's telling, War and State Department officials emerge as key players in the emergence of domestic industry, facilitating rifle makers and power-loom weavers in the quest to develop national industrial resources. It was this defensive strategy, she argues, that eventually evolved to promote westward expansion as well as America's growing commercial and territorial empire"-- Provided by publisher.

Topic: Industrial policy--History; Defense industries--History; Textile industry--History; Politics and government