Customers say
Customers find the book provides good information and history about cargo containers. They describe it as a great, fun read with a well-written narrative style. The chapters are organized into coherent subtopics. Many readers find it to be a good value for money and a must-read for innovators and disrupters.
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A quick rundown of this product’s key features:
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 made the boom in global trade possible. The Box tells the dramatic story of the container’s creation, the decade of struggle before it was widely adopted, and the sweeping economic consequences of the sharp fall in transportation costs that containerization brought about.
But the container didn’t just happen. Its adoption required huge sums of money, both from private investors and from ports that aspired to be on the leading edge of a new technology. It required years of high-stakes bargaining with two of the titans of organized labor, Harry Bridges and Teddy Gleason, as well as delicate negotiations on standards that made it possible for almost any container to travel on any truck or train or ship. Ultimately, it took McLean’s success in supplying U.S. forces in Vietnam to persuade the world of the container’s potential.
Drawing on previously neglected sources, economist Marc Levinson shows how the container transformed economic geography, devastating traditional ports such as New York and London and fueling the growth of previously obscure ones, such as Oakland. By making shipping so cheap that industry could locate factories far from its customers, the container paved the way for Asia to become the world’s workshop and brought consumers a previously unimaginable variety of low-cost products from around the globe.
Published in hardcover on the fiftieth anniversary of the first container voyage, this is the first comprehensive history of the shipping container. 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.
Our Top Reviews
Reviewer: Alexander
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Detailed, in-depth history of the shipping industry
Review: Levinson’s “The Box” is the most comprehensive, reader-friendly book not only on the usage of the shipping container but the shipping and transportation industry itself. The style, a linear, narrative type, gives both the proper historical context of breakbulk shipping preceding containerized freight to the union battles of the 60’s, ending with the explosion of Asian container ports in the second decade of the 21st century. Levinson’s detailed narrative is great for both readers with experience in this industry and the general audience.However, on occasion, Levinson will mention very specific terminology that can confuse a reader not familiar with logistics and shipping. Everyone reading this review probably knows what a container looks like, but not the specifics, such as the locking mechanisms and the sides to support the weight of multiple containers. It would have been nice to have more photos to illustrate these parts. For the most part, any figures are tables relating to data; useful, but the space should have been used for pictures. Thankfully, Google is a useful ally.With the book being around 500 pages (the last ~100 are references and citations), The Box approaches the border of being too lengthy, but not verbose. If you are looking for a quick, brief understanding of containerized freight, I would suggest another book or a YouTube video. However, if you’d like to learn the history of shipping, containers, transportation, and its affects, both political and economic, then this book is a must.
Reviewer: mm07
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very informative
Review: Great history lesson on containers
Reviewer: Gerhard Stoltz Jr.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Interesting and elucidating
Review: For anybody interested in global trade flows this is a must read. Well written and focused on the big picture, told with a focus on the innovators, the winners, and the losers in an unlikely and tumultuous global revolution. The author manages to sketch both individual and structural stories very well.At the end of this book you’ll most likely go straight on Google Earth to try to map the flow of containers in your region, unless you’d already done that!
Reviewer: Albert Haas
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great story about a huge innovation
Review: To the uninitiated that just assume the modernization of containerizedshipping was a simple process this will enlighten you. As a teenager I knew Malcolm McLean as my fathers friend and knew he was famous for Sea Land. But I had no idea how far reaching his influence was or the risks he took, especially the transport of all of the US military supplies to Vietnam. So much more to this story than I imagined
Reviewer: Victor Sanchez Ferrer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very focused on USA, but an excellent book
Review: Would have appreciated a more global view. The author sometimes repeats ideas, making the book a longer yet entertained read. Would recommend yo skip pages if you got the idea.
Reviewer: Tree
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Interesting
Review: The original has information on container housing the new version only has information on inter modal shipping and the shipping container business.
Reviewer: Georgia Peach
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Informative
Review: Alot of very good information and history. Tied together alot of questions I had about the container shipping industry. Informative .
Reviewer: Dale Martin
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Massive industry
Review: This book all of the parts together about the shipping container that I have seen in person by bits and pieces. Having never meet Mr McClean by have a friend who worked for him, this book closes the gaps in my knowledge.
Reviewer: Pietro Gazzera
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Una bella storia sui container. E di come hanno cambiato la storia (e pure la geografia)
Reviewer: Louise B.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: He loved it.
Reviewer: Ademir Trujillo
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Interesante para aquellos que nos dedicamos a Comercio Exterior. Una fuente que te ayuda a entender mejor cómo una “simple” caja nos ha permitido vivir en un mundo globalizado.
Reviewer: kuldeep
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Good book
Reviewer: Heinrich
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I am always curious to find literature about modular transport. With this one I found a classic!It puts container business in the wide context of product development, international trade, financing, politics and changing worklife.At times we can only approach things, if somebody tells us a captivating story about them: Marc Livingstone does it with great attention to detail and an easy to read style.
Price effective as of Mar 23, 2025 05:51:41 UTC
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