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The Box
Book

The Box

How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger

Marc Levinson
Princeton UP, 2006

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Happy fiftieth birthday to the shipping container, that unexciting, unglamorous cog in the wheels of commerce that just so happened to change the world. Most people might have ignored the import of the box during the past half-century, but economist Marc Levinson offers an insightful tale that will help you appreciate this oft-overlooked advancement. If it weren't for the container, Levinson argues persuasively, for good or ill, there could be no Wal-Mart and U.S. manufacturing jobs couldn't have migrated to China. This history lesson recounts the box inventor's quest and offers some subtle perspective for businesspeople struggling to foretell the future. At times, Levinson bogs down in the details of 1950s labor relations, but his work mostly moves quickly through the highs and lows of the container's story. getAbstract recommends this revealing tale to anyone in the global economy.

Take-Aways

  • Today's availability of imported goods owes its existence to a single invention: the standardized shipping container.
  • The first container set sail aboard a ship in 1956 and forever changed global trade.
  • Before 1956, moving merchandise was prohibitively expensive, so people typically bought goods made close to home.

About the Author

Marc Levinson is an economist in New York and author of three previous books, including The Economist Guide to Financial Markets and Beyond Free Markets: The Revival of Activist Economics. He has worked at The Economist, Newsweek and the Journal of Commerce.

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