"Manufacturing Independence tells two brilliantly interwoven stories, and it tells them both wondrously well. In the one, we discover how a handful of unsung heroes made the weapons that Washington’s army had to have to win the war for independence. In the other, we learn how the industrial revolution first came to America. Each of them is a history we’ve never had before. Together, in surprising and revelatory ways, they transform our understanding of our Revolutionary origins and our modern economy."—Michael W. Zuckerman, University of Pennsylvania
"Employing the little-used records of the Second Continental Congress’ Department of the Commissary General of Military Stores, Robert Smith accomplishes two things of considerable importance that together change consequential aspects of our understanding of revolutionary America. Not only does he reveal an intriguing story about war-time and post-war America but he also opens up a wholly new window on the transformation of the colonial economy to the more modern economy of the early national period. The needs of war and the agency of government acted in concert to convert the work of colonial craftsmen into an emerging manufacturing sector, a proto-industry, gunsmithing on the cusp of becoming gun-manufacturing. This is a most exciting work, authoritatively realized, impressively accomplished!"—John J. McCusker, Ewing Halsell Distinguished Professor Emeritus of American History and Professor Emeritus of Economics, Trinity University
"Manufacturing Independence is a pathbreaking study that casts a flood of light on the logistical demands, successes and, yes, failures of the American Revolution. In addition to showing how American armies were armed and equipped during the conflict, Robert Smith underscores the critical role that the fledgling central government and its hastily assembled procurement agencies (notably Samuel Hodgdon’s tireless work as Commissary General of Military Stores) played in stoking the fires of the industrial revolution in America. In doing so, he recasts our understanding of the American Revolution’s larger economic significance and adds a new chapter to the story of military enterprise and technological change in the early national period. Anyone interested in how the United States gained independence and charted its industrial future will want to read this fascinating volume."—Merritt Roe Smith, Cutten Professor of the History of Technology, STS and History Faculties, Massachusetts Institute of Technology