This interpretative essay and extensive bibliography surveying the chronology and major characteristics of American technology before 1850 is the first available guide in this period to the rapidly developing field of the history of technology. Originally published in 1966. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

How manufacturing textiles and guns transformed the United States from colonial dependent to military power. In 1783, the Revolutionary War drew to a close, but America was still threatened by enemies at home and abroad. The emerging nation faced tax rebellions, Indian warfare, and hostilities with France and England. Its arsenal—a collection of hand-me-down and beat-up firearms—was woefully inadequate, and its manufacturing sector was weak. In an era when armies literally froze in the field, military preparedness depended on blankets and jackets, the importation of which the British Empire had coordinated for over 200 years. Without a ready supply of guns, the new nation could not defend itself; without its own textiles, it was at the economic mercy of the British. Domestic industry offered the best solution for true economic and military independence. In Manufacturing Advantage, Lindsay Schakenbach Regele shows how the US government promoted the industrial development of textiles and weapons to defend the country from hostile armies—and hostile imports. Moving from the late 1700s through the Mexican-American War, Schakenbach Regele argues that both industries developed as a result of what she calls “national security capitalism”: a mixed enterprise system in which government agents and private producers brokered solutions to the problems of war and international economic disparities. War and State Department officials played particularly key roles in the emergence of American industry, facilitating arms makers and power loom weavers in the quest to develop industrial resources. And this defensive strategy, Schakenbach Regele reveals, eventually evolved to promote westward expansion, as well as America’s growing commercial and territorial empire. Examining these issues through the lens of geopolitics, Manufacturing Advantage places the rise of industry in the United States in the context of territorial expansion, diplomacy, and warfare. Ultimately, the book reveals the complex link between government intervention and private initiative in a country struggling to create a political economy that balanced military competence with commercial needs.

The foreign missionary movement of the early 19th century grew out of the efforts of churches in New England to deal with the changes then taking place in society. The erosion of traditional institutional structures and social values plus the rise of Unitarianism threatened the destruction of the traditional faith. Mr. Andrew holds that the Congregational clergy used foreign missions not only to implant New England culture in heathen lands but also to awaken a sense of community at home.

"Koistinen's ambitious, dating, and provocative work is unique to the literature and advances our understanding of the relationship between war, the military, and society to a new level. Historians for years to come will be grateful for his work". -- Richard h. Kohn, author of Eagle and Sword: The Beginnings of the Military establishment in America. "Koistinen blends incisive description and perceptive analysis in the first of a projected five-volume study that will likely become a classic". -- Edward M. Coffman, author of The War to End All Wars.

Vols. 1-22 include the section "Recent publications upon economics".