Menu
Idea

manufacturing

173
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Men and women working in a factory during World War 2.

Dispelling the WWII Productivity Myth

Generally speaking, emergencies tend to reduce productivity, at least in the short and medium terms.
by Alberto Mingardi via Law & Liberty on July 30, 2024

Hamilton’s System

Who is the father of American capitalism?
by Jacob Soll via The Hedgehog Review on November 1, 2023
A Foxconn factory in San Jeronimo, Chihuahua state, Mexico, as seen from Santa Teresa, N.M.
partner

History Shows Moving Manufacturing to North America Isn’t a Cure-all

The initial promise of Mexican factories in the 1960s gave way to impoverished communities and capital flight in search of higher profits.
by Sean Harvey via Made By History on March 6, 2023
Students and professor at a 19th century furnace in the Jefferson National Forest.

In Jefferson National Forest, Trees are Survivors

"The tallest trees at Roaring Run remember sending down taproots even as the furnace stones were still warm. Desecration is not ironclad."
by Chelsea Fisher via Edge Effects on June 16, 2022

The 5 WWII Lessons That Could Help the Government Fight Coronavirus

Eighty years ago, U.S. industry mobilized in a big way during a crisis. We could do it again.
by Mark R. Wilson via Politico Magazine on March 19, 2020
A 1947 advertisement for the air conditioner featuring two women looking bemusedly at a new window unit.

The Unexpected History of the Air Conditioner

The invention was once received with chilly skepticism but has become a fixture of American life.
by Haleema Shah via Smithsonian on June 24, 2019
Advertisement highlighting recipes to make with Seabrook frozen vegetables.

Decline and Fall of the Spinach Kings: On the Wilting of a Family Dynasty

A history of wealth, enterprise, and family dysfunction.
by John Seabrook via Literary Hub on June 11, 2025
A group of women textile workers outside of their boarding house.

Lowell’s Forgotten House Mothers

As vital to the success of industrial New England as the mill girls who toiled in the factories were the women who oversaw their lodging.
by Sarah Buchmeier via JSTOR Daily on April 2, 2025
Bethlehem Steel Mill.

The Steel Mill That Built America

Bethlehem Steel was the birthplace of skyscrapers, bridges, and battleships. What happened after the plant's furnaces went cold?
by Matthew Christopher via Atlas Obscura on February 25, 2025
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, flanked by the U.S. and Chinese flags.

Back to the ’80s?

Trump, Xi Jinping, and the tariffs.
by Andrew Liu via n+1 on January 30, 2025
Protestors after Nixon's Election protesting the end to war.

US Labor and the Gaza War: Historical Perspective

Are we doomed to repetition? It’s something I worry about.
by Tim Barker via Origins of Our Time on November 15, 2024

The Making of the Springfield Working Class

Each generation of this country’s workforce has always been urged to detest the next—to come up with its own fantasies of cat-eating immigrants.
by Gabriel Winant via New York Review of Books on September 30, 2024
Advertisement for beer.

Pilsner Goes to America: How Beer Got Big in the 19th Century

On the transatlantic development of pilsners and lagers from Central Europe to the Americas.
by Jeffrey M. Pilcher via Literary Hub on September 30, 2024
Summer Interns, posting with the casing of a B-61 bomb in 1982.

Pantex Employee Photos, 1980s

Team photographs at a nuclear weapons factory offer a glimpse into the mundanity and materiality of the bomb.
by Alex Wellerstein via Doomsday Machines on August 13, 2024
Factory cloth samples.

Chinese Production, American Consumption

The convergence of economy and politics in the Sino-US relationship via Jonathan Chatwin’s “The Southern Tour” and Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson’s “Made in China.”
by Kate Merkel-Hess via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 28, 2024
A wall of tools and cups designed to collect gum for turpentine production.

Turpentine in Time

The hard labor behind what was once one of the nation's most significant industries.
by Sylvia Melvin via Contingent on July 3, 2024
Art installation of cardboard pieces with the Amazon arrow logo, arranged in the shape of a cresting wave.

World in a Box: Cardboard Media and the Geographic Imagination

Cardboard boxes hold a world of meaning that spans from Amazon to the Container Corporation of America.
by Shannon Mattern via Places Journal on May 15, 2024
Volunteers at Big Creek Missions in Leslie County, Kentucky

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood

I’ve been going back to eastern Kentucky for over a decade. Since 2016, something there has changed.
by Bradley Devlin via The American Conservative on April 22, 2024
Niels Vodder display with furniture designed by Finn Juhl, Cabinetmakers Guild Exhibition, 1949.

Freedom Furniture

How did Americans come to love “mid-century modern”?
by Marianela D’Aprile via The Nation on January 23, 2024
Collage depicting shipping containers, a scale weighing American dollars, and a screen of numbers and percentages

Free Trade's Origin Myth

American elites accepted the economic theory of "comparative advantage" mainly because it justified their geopolitical agenda.
by Oren Cass via Law & Liberty on January 2, 2024
A hand reaches for stacks of coins and bills, superimposed on photos of factory smokestacks.

Profit, Power, and Purpose

The greatest challenge presented by modern corporations, small as well as large, involves purpose.
by Michael Lind via The Hedgehog Review on November 1, 2023
Barbie doll

Barbie and the Problem of Corporate Power

Stars of the movie about an iconic Mattel toy are on strike. Both the company’s history and Barbie’s plot illuminate how powerful corporations really are.
by Rithika Ramamurthy via Nonprofit Quarterly on July 31, 2023

‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ Tell the Same Terrifying Story

The “Barbenheimer” double feature captures the dawn of our imperiled era.
by Tyler Austin Harper, Amanda Shendruk via Washington Post on July 19, 2023
The first electric car model.

Three Maintenance Philosophies Fought for Control of the Auto Industry

At the very beginning of the auto industry, no less than three radically different design-for-maintenance philosophies fought it out.
by Stewart Brand via Books In Progress on June 29, 2023
Amy Brady next to cover of "Ice" on ice background

A Profoundly Impactful Substance

"Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks – A Cool History of a Hot Commodity" reveals the history of frozen water and its impact on American life and culture.
by Ian Macallen, Amy Brady via Chicago Review of Books on June 6, 2023
Photograph of glass factory, on glass, with man blowing glass behind it.

Unbreakable: Glass in the Rust Belt

Domestic glass manufacturing in the U.S. remains concentrated in the Rust Belt. But studio glassblowing is adding relevance to a long forgotten material.
by Dora Segall via Belt Magazine on March 29, 2023
Drawing of a fighter plane.

The Real Developmental Engine

Throughout its history, the technology sector has been dependent on the federal budget.
by Jeannette Estruth via The Drift on February 22, 2023
Frederick Douglass Patterson, behind the wheel, with an unidentified passenger in a 1910 or 1911 Maxwell automobile in for repairs at the C.R. Patterson & Sons car repair shop, before the Pattersons began making cars themselves.

How America’s First — and Only — Black Automakers Defied the Odds

C.R. Patterson & Sons of Greenfield became the first Black-owned automobile manufacturer in 1915. More than a century later, it remains the only known one.
by Kevin Williams via Retropolis on February 18, 2023
A 747 Boeing aircraft takes flight.

Last Boeing 747 Rolls Out of the Factory: How the 'Queen of the Skies' Reigned Over Air Travel

On Sept. 30, 1968, the first Boeing 747 rolled off the assembly line. Some 55 years later, the last one has left its factory.
by Janet Bednarek via The Conversation on January 31, 2023
Bill Clinton presenting the V-chip, 1996.

Cold Controls

“National security” and the history of US export controls.
by Ella Coon via Phenomenal World on January 18, 2023
View More
30 of
173

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History