A Nation of Steel: The Making of Modern America by Thomas J. Misa

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 635 war, Buffalo Forge supplied the Confederacy with iron made through techniques used in Revolutionary-era charcoal works. Surg­ ing demand in the decade before 1865 also exhausted the district’s ore banks. Once the bubble of postwar demand for local iron at any price burst, Buffalo Forge fell silent. Antiquated technologies, thin ores, cheap Northern and foreign iron, and freedmen’s evident de­ sire to work independently (even if under sharecropping relations) erased the district’s metalmaking capacity. The end ofslavery meant the end of ironmaking. Dew’s mentor, Vann Woodward, admonished him to avoid “gerontophagy ,” the aggressive writing of histories that devour scholarly elders. Thus Dew skirts scholarly controversies about slavery, rural industrialization, and antebellum technological change, while stress­ ing slave agency within the peculiar relations ofiron manufacturing. As a result, this work, for all its compelling narrative drive, will pro­ vide more raw material for later debates than clear judgments on current ones. Nevertheless, Bond ofIron, with its fine research and historical reconstructions, deserves close reading by historians of technology. Philip Scranton Dr. Scranton is professor of history at Rutgers University—Camden and director of research at the Hagley Museum and Library. A Nation ofSteel: The Making ofModem America. By Thomas J. Misa. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. Pp. xxvi+367; illustrations, tables, notes, index. $49.95 (cloth). This truly outstanding book will become required reading in the history of technology. The story of steel is important in its own right, and Thomas Misa writes with remarkable clarity and succinctness. But the reason for this book’s importance is that it represents a new and powerful historiographic model centered on ‘‘user-producer in­ teractions.” That is, in the history of steel in America, the specific needs of industrial consumers caused innovations which provided them with the types of steel they needed for their specific tasks. The emphasis upon user-producer interactions allows Misa to focus on the social significance of technologies and to bring out nuances and contingencies in the development ofcritical technologies and indus­ tries. Thus, after a briefbut insightful review of the invention and inno­ vation of the Bessemer process, Misa discusses consumer sectors, each of which had different needs. Bessemer steel was introduced in America mainly to produce steel rails. This led to what Misa calls “reckless mass production” of steel rails. The concept of “reckless” production is very interesting; in essence, competitive pressures and impatience by builders led to a sacrifice of quality for quantity. The 636 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE result was a crisis in the 1880s and 1890s, when heavier loads and low quality compelled railroads virtually to rebuild themselves, in many cases in the context of a corporate reorganization by J. P. Morgan. The Bessemer steel produced for railroads was not suited to the structural needs of skyscrapers and the changing American urban landscape. The result was the innovation of a superior product tai­ lored to the needs of the construction industry: basic open-hearth steel. Here as in other chapters Misa spotlights the knowledge sys­ tems that facilitated the spread of new kinds of steel. In the case of structural steel, Carnegie Steel took the lead (and gained a market advantage) by making their handbooks into technical manuals for the design and use of various types and shapes of structural steel. Later, in the case ofautomobiles, producers’ needs for knowledge of standardized steel products, many involving special alloys and heat treating, were met by the Society of Automotive Engineers. New needs led to new technologies and new social interactions. The government’s purchase of high-priced armor plate led to new types of steel (Harvey and Krupp steel) and added new political di­ mensions to steel making. The production of metal-cutting tools and machinery created demands for further innovations in steel technol­ ogy. Here Frederick W. Taylor’s invention of high-speed steel was key, along with his monumental study of the Art of Cutting Metal. Automobiles had other special needs in steel, leading to standardiza­ tion, special alloys, and further innovations. Misa concludes with a clear and important chapter on the dynamics of change. In telling his story Misa uses...