Praise for the original edition: “[A] classic tale of trial and error, and of creative destruction.” —Virginia Postrel, The New York Times “Like much of today’s international cargo, Marc Levinson’s The Box arrives ‘just in time.’”—Tim W. Ferguson, The Wall Street Journal “Levinson has produced a marvelous read for anyone who cares about how the interconnected world economy came to be.”—Neil Irwin, Washington Post “Ingenious analysis of the phenomenon of containerism.” —Stefan Stern, Financial Times “[An] enlightening new history. … [The shipping container] was the real-world equivalent of the Internet revolution.”—Justin Fox, Fortune “The Box makes a strong argument. … Levinson … spins yarns of the men who fought to retain the old On the Waterfront ways and of those who made the box ubiquitous.”—Michael Arndt, BusinessWeek “Marc Levinson’s The Box is … broad-ranging and … readable. It de- scribes not just the amazing course of the container-ship phenomenon but the turmoil of human affairs in its wake.” —Bob Simmons, The Seattle Times “Mr. Levinson’s elegant weave of transportation economics, innovation, and geography is economic history at its accessible best.” —David K. Hurst, Strategy + Business “The Box is … an engrossing read. … The book is well-written, with detailed notes and an index. I found it absorbing and informative from the first page.”—Graham Williams, Sydney Morning Herald “The Box is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in under- standing the emergence of our contemporary ‘globalized’ world econo- my.”—Pierre Desrochers, Independent Review “A fascinating history of the shipping container.”—Richard N. Cooper, Foreign Affairs “For sheer originality … [this book] by Marc Levinson, is hard to beat.”—David Smith, The Sunday Times (London) “This is a smoothly written history of the ocean shipping container. … Marc Levinson turns it into a fascinating economic history of the last 50 years that helps us to understand globalization and industrial growth in North America.”—Harvey Schachter, Globe and Mail “Excellent.”—J. Bradford DeLong, The Edge Financial Daily “This is an ingenious analysis of containerization—a process that, Levinson argues, in fact made globalization possible.”—Business Voice “The Box does a fine job of demonstrating how exciting the container industry is, and how much economists stand to lose by ignoring it.” —William Sjostrom, EH.Net “[T]he insights the book provides make it a worthwhile read for anyone interested in how international trade in goods has evolved over the last 50 years.”—Meredith A. Crowley, World Trade Review “Marc Levinson’s The Box … illustrates clearly how great risks are tak- en by entrepreneurs when entrenched interests and government regula- tors conspire against them. … The story of the shipping container is the story of the opponents of innovation.”—Chris Berg, Institute of Public Affairs Review “The shipping container didn’t just rearrange the shipping industry, or make winners of some ports (Seattle and Tacoma among them). It changed the dynamics and economics of where goods are made and shipped to.”—Bill Virgin, Seattle Post-Intelligencer “A fascinating new book. … [I]t shows vividly how resistance to tech- nological change caused shipping movements to migrate away from the Hudson river to other East Coast ports.”—Management Today “Using a blend of hard economic data and financial projections, com- bined with human interest, Levinson manages to provide insights into a revolution that changed transport forever and transformed world trade.”—Leon Gettler, The Age “Levinson uses rich detail, a combination of archival and anecdotal data to build his story, and is constantly moving across levels of obser- vation. … And the story of the box is a very good read.” —Administrative Science Quarterly “The Box reveals the subject to be interesting and powerful, shedding light on all kinds of issues, from the role of trade unions to the Vietnam War.”—NUMAST Telegraph “The Box makes for an excellent primer on innovation, risk taking, and strategic thinking. It’s also a thoroughly good read.” —Craig B. Grossgart, Taiwan Business Topics “The ubiquitous shipping container … as Mark Levinson’s multilayered study shows … has transformed the global economy.”—The Australian The Box The Box How tHe SHipping Container Made tHe world SMaller and tHe world eConoMy Bigger Second Edition Marc Levinson prinCeton UniverSity preSS prinCeton and oxford Copyright © 2016 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR press.princeton.edu Jacket art courtesy of Shutterstock All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Levinson, Marc. The box : how the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger / Marc Levinson. — Second Edition. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-17081-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Containerization—History. 2. McLean, Malcolm Purcell, 1913–2001. I. Title. TA1215.L47 2016 387.5ʹ442—dc23 2015024925 British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Sabon LT Std text with Scala Sans OT Display Printed on acid- free paper. ∞ press.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 To Aaron, Rebecca, and Deborah Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments to the Second Edition xvii Chapter 1 The World the Box Made 1 Chapter 2 Gridlock on the Docks 21 Chapter 3 The Trucker 47 Chapter 4 The System 72 Chapter 5 The Battle for New York’s Port 102 Chapter 6 Union Disunion 135 Chapter 7 Setting the Standard 170 Chapter 8 Takeoff 202 Chapter 9 Vietnam 230 Chapter 10 Ports in a Storm 254 Chapter 11 Boom and Bust 285 Chapter 12 The Bigness Complex 310 Chapter 13 The Shippers’ Revenge 329 Chapter 14 Just in Time 355 Chapter 15 Adding Value 375 Notes 391 Bibliography 465 Index 491