Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry, 1776-1848

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...