In this well-drafted study, David Nye provides the reader with the best historical analysis of American manufacturing since the publication of David Hounshell's FROM THE AMERICAN SYSTEM TO MASS PRODUCTION, 1800-1932 (1984). His use of the enormous documentary base that now exists on the rise of assembly-line production over the last century and his thorough examination of the origins and successive stages of that development are impressive and convincing. Nye has a unique gift to both inform and entertain as he covers the technical evolution of a process that came into existence in 1913 and has continued to adjust to new techniques. In addition to helping readers understand the technologies that shaped the assembly line, the author also provides insights into its cultural impact as seen in literature and the arts, particularly painting and photography. In ten chapters, Nye addresses the historical roots and context, Henry Ford's inaugural effort, spread of the process overseas, impact on workers, social and political criticism, Japanese reconfiguring of the assembly-line dynamic, and current efforts to confront the question of sustainability.This last concern presents the greatest challenge to assembly-line technology. During the 100 years since the first Fords rolled off that original assembly line, the global impact of accelerated manufacturing, with its ever expanding need for natural resources and resulting pollution of the environment, remains a disturbing consequence that has not yet been really addressed. Nye acknowledges the problem when he writes: "The assembly line will have to be reconceived as far more than a physical arrangement of machines. It is the center of an entire cultural system that stretches far beyond the factory gates, including farms, iron and copper mines, rubber plantations, transportation networks, energy systems, steel mills, parts suppliers, the factory itself, banks, repair shops, recycling programs, and landfills." (p. 263) Here Nye functions as both historian and moralist as he concludes a book that recounts a development that has given the global human community so much material progress. Yet, at the same time, it has added to the creating of a possible environmental disaster which could undermine the very economic gains it has provided.This is a book with powerful facts and a clear message. It should be on everyone's must-read list.