Carl Crow’s The Great American Customer Armed Forces Edition

Back in America after the Japanese attack on Shanghai in late 1943 the great old China Hand Carl Crow published many of his thoughts on the origins and uniqueness of the American experiment in a book The Great American Customer, subtitled The Story of Invention, Mass Production and our Prosperity, which traced the development of manufacturing and marketing in the USA from independence to the production and sale of cameras by George Eastman. The first editions of the book published during the war were printed on rough paper in order to conform to government regulations for conserving paper. Crow felt that the book could help remind war weary American’s that their commercial history had provided them with both a freedom and degree of luxury and comfort that had never been known anywhere else before and were worth fighting for. He had long believed that American methods of scientific management were responsible for many of the country’s achievements from its growing industrial base to its success on the athletics track and in The Great American Customer he fleshed out this argument – this is the advert for the US Armed Services edition of the book available to soldiers…