Publisher Description
But as Charles R. Morris shows us, the platform for that spectacular growth spurt was built in the first half of the century. By the 1820s, America was already the world’s most productive manufacturer and the most intensely commercialized society in history. The War of 1812 jump-started the great New England cotton mills, the iron centers in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and the forges around the Great Lakes. In the decade after the War, the Midwest was opened by entrepreneurs. In this book, Morris paints a vivid panorama of a new nation buzzing with the work of creation. He also points out the parallels and differences in the nineteenth century American/British standoff and that between China and America today.
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“To the often-told story of America’s initial industrial development, Morris adds fresh data and insightful revisions. He begins The Dawn of Innovation with a fascinating account of how the rivalry of the early United States and Britain to dominate the Great Lakes produced a ‘shipbuilders’ war’ that helped trigger industrial development here…[Morris] is persuasive in arguing that America grew so rich so rapidly in part because it was largely born free.”
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New York Times Book Review