A Must Read (but a bit too long)

The story of the container itself and its ripple effects is fascinating. It’s really well researched and very well told - although the second half could’ve been a bit shorter - it feels like a too detailed blow by blow account.

This book does an amazing job of showing how disruptive changes get adopted in the world. I think it is a useful read for anyone to truly understand the difference between someone having a brilliant transformative idea and the world actually embracing said idea. We are raised on stories of people being struck by brilliance “and the rest is history”. This book is a great reminder that innovation requires not just vision but also a lot of hard work. Brilliant ideas don’t happen by chance - they come off the back of many cycles of trials and errors. Hard work and persistence are key.

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The Box - The main part and structure of shipping

In this book the details, history, expectations and change. Is explained in a social and historical lens.

The book is well written, extensive and focuses on several subjects like: buiness, economy, countries, occupations in ports and ships among other things.

Not sure at this point if it was my focus, the books repetition or kind of bland parts where I lost the scope and structure of what Levinson was trying to show.

But mant parts of the book felt repetitive and didn’t give me as much as the earlier parts of the book and the summaries. Felt a bit drawn out at times.

So for me the book gets 3 stars for story and is connected to my a bit lacking experience. With a overall very good book. That covers a relatively unknown subject in our connected world.

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Very detailed explanation of the cntr history

Was good to listen to with many interesting facts about the cntr, it's makers and world economy history. Although with ca. 12 hrs pretty long.

Anyhow, I liked it.

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How the modern world works

I spotted this after Alain de Botton name checked it as a book that would explain how the modern world got the way it is. Levinson manages to tell the story of how the invention of the container lead, through a mixture of overwhelming economic advantage and pure chance, to the rise of countries like China as industrial super-powers, to the hollowing out of small scale manufacturing from our towns and to the death of ancient ports like London. This could all be a bit dry but Levinson has a gift for story telling and keeps his narrative cracking along by letting the key characters in the development of containerisation carry the story. So we get Malcom McLean developing his trucking business during the depression; sitting in a queue at the docks and wondering how the process of transfer could be speeded up. McLean goes on to develop containerisation on roads and then on sea through a mixture of innovation and attention to detail while great ports make massive gambles on outfitting themselves for the emerging technology before near neighbours can get in first. A dominoe effect of economic and geographical drivers then leads us to a world in which it's cheaper to make everything from paper plates to i-pods in China and then ship them half the way around the world than it is to manufacture them near to consumers and save on transport costs. If you're interested in how the world works; this book is a must.

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Does not do what it says on the tin

Only in the last of its 16 chapters does the term 'global supply chain' appear and we finally get some discussion of the impact of containers on the nature of distributed manufacturing and just in time practices that set us up for the problem we are currently having with the supply of goods. This chapter is quite short and a rather perfunctory attempt to justify this book's tag line.

This book is mostly a business history of ports and shipping in the 20th century with an emphasis on the United States. Ironically the earlier chapters that cover the social history of ports and docks in the early part of the century, decades before the container, are the most interesting. The bulk of the book largely discusses the business of running a container line covering route developments, tariffs, buyouts and such. It's dreary stuff. Worst of all however is the discussion of the container's design. For example there is a lengthy section about the development of the crane coupling points on the top of every container.

The narrator does a valiant job not sounding bored but there's not much he can do with the material.

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