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The cover of The Box

The Box

Marc Levinson, 2006

How a plain steel box, pushed by trucker Malcom McLean, slashed shipping costs, emptied old waterfronts, built new ports and made long global supply chains possible.

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16 parts, about 31 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Shows how a metal container turned shipping from a costly dockside gridlock into a system cheap enough to link distant factories and markets
  • Follows how unions, port cities and standard setting committees fought over the container, and why New York lost ground while Oakland and Felixstowe rose
  • Explains how ever bigger ships and falling freight costs reshaped manufacturing, and why experts and even its pioneer kept misjudging the future

Who it is for

  • Readers curious about how global trade and supply chains came to work
  • Business readers who want a case of one idea upending an industry
  • Readers interested in how ports and dock unions shaped cities

What the summary covers

  1. Preface1 min
  2. The World the Box Made2 min
  3. Gridlock on the Docks2 min
  4. The Trucker2 min
  5. The System2 min
  6. The Battle for New York's Port2 min
  7. Union Disunion2 min
  8. Setting the Standard2 min
  9. Takeoff2 min
  10. Vietnam2 min
  11. Ports in a Storm2 min
  12. Boom and Bust2 min
  13. The Bigness Complex2 min
  14. The Shippers' Revenge2 min
  15. Just in Time2 min
  16. Adding Value2 min

Recommended by

  • Bill GatesCofounder of Microsoft and chair of the Gates Foundation

About the author

  • Marc LevinsonAmerican historian, economist and author
    • Worked for many years as a journalist, including as editorial director of The Journal of Commerce, as a business writer at Newsweek, and as finance and economics editor of The Economist.
    • Spent a decade at JPMorgan Chase, building an industry economics function and starting the bank's environmental research for investors.
    • Served as a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
    • Managed transportation and industry analysis at the Congressional Research Service.
    • Studied as an undergraduate at Antioch College.
    • Earned a master's degree in public administration from Georgia State University and a degree in public and international affairs from Princeton University.
    • Received a doctorate in history from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
    • Reviews books for The Wall Street Journal.

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