Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

January 2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

History

First Advisor

Tracy Neumann

Abstract

Michigan is famous for its overdependence on the U.S. auto industry. Since World War II, Michigan has periodically attempted to diversify its economy by encouraging the creation of new, technology-based industries housed in the state, a strategy I call technology-based diversification. Technology-based diversification is a product of the idea that America’s victory in World War II was partially the product of the development of new technologies, including the atom bomb, radar, and the digital computer. Communities central to the development of these technologies, such as Silicon Valley, went on to become exemplars for how to become successful in the late twentieth century. After the Korean War, Michigan would unsuccessfully attempt to join the electronics- and aerospace-intensive defense industries of the 1950s. When the U.S. auto industry went into a depression after the 1979 oil embargo, Michigan attempted to make itself into the nation’s center for industrial automation, as well as a player in biotechnology. These efforts too met with little success. Even today, with Michigan’s dependence on the auto industry much reduced because of the shrinkage of its auto companies, it is less diversified than most states, and vulnerable to downturns in the industry. Industrial policy is seeing a revival as the neoliberal order begins to fall apart and the federal government becomes increasingly interventionist. In the last heyday of industrial policy, in the 1980s, state governments played a major role in developing industrial policy innovations. It is now critical to understand the innovations attempted in past decades. This dissertation provides an in-depth look at the efforts of one state to conduct technology-based industrial policy over four decades to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of its efforts. This dissertation expands the historiography of deindustrialization from the urban level to that of state governments. Viewed through a strictly urban lens, efforts to address deindustrialization tend to look mostly at urban renewal and gentrification as cities tried to recruit the “creative class.” Viewed through a wider, state-wide lens, Michigan’s efforts to develop and recruit whole new industries looks more plausibly transformative, even if those efforts failed.

Download

Share

COinS