The Box

How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger

By Marc Levinson (2006)

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,..