Machine Tool Reading List

For those interested in reading more about the machine tool industry, the sources I found useful are listed below. The machine tool industry has been studied quite extensively, if sporadically (lots of sources talk about its decline in the 1980s, fewer ones talk about its evolution since then), so there’s quite a few to choose from. They are listed roughly in order of how useful I found them:

When the machine stopped: A cautionary tale from industrial America

Book published in 1989 about the rise and fall of a small west coast machine tool manufacturer, Burgmaster, known for its turret drills. It goes very deep on the struggles and successes of Burgmaster and the changing landscape of the machine tool industry: the rise of Japanese manufacturers, the evolving technology and the difficulty of staying ahead with new products, Burgmaster’s acquisition and subsequent mismanagement by the large conglomerate Houdaille, and its ultimate destruction in the 1980s.

My only real complaint is that it's very tightly focused on Burgmaster (and to some extent a particular Japanese manufacturer Yamazaki aka Mazak), and doesn’t give as much context as I think it could have for the broader machine tool industry. This is especially true given that Burgmaster was in some ways not a particularly representative machine tool manufacturer (it was on the west coast, for instance, where most of the industry was concentrated in New England and the Midwest). But still a great place to start for learning more about the industry in the 20th century.  Many other detailed studies of the modern machine tool industry reference this book at some point.