The box : how the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger / Marc Levinson.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The world the box made -- Gridlock on the docks -- The trucker -- The system -- The battle for New York's port -- Union disunion -- Setting the standard -- Takeoff -- Vietnam -- Ports in a storm -- Boom and bust -- The bigness complex -- The shippers' revenge -- Just in time -- Adding value.

In April 1956, a refitted oil tanker carried fifty-eight shipping containers from Newark to Houston. From that modest beginning, container shipping developed into a huge industry that reshaped manufacturing. But the container didn't just happen. Its adoption required huge sums of money, years of high-stakes bargaining, and delicate negotiation on standards. Now with a new chapter, The Box tells the dramatic story of how the drive and imagination of an iconoclastic entrepreneur turned containerization from an impractical idea into a phenomenon that transformed economic geography, slashed transportation costs, and made the boom in global trade possible. -- from back cover.