Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Spare Parts

Spare Parts

Scranton, Philip

Paperback

Series: Hagley Library Studies in Business, Technology, and Politics

Technology & EngineeringGeneral World History

PREORDER - Expected ship date November 10, 2026

ISBN10: 1421455447
ISBN13: 9781421455440
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: Oct 13 2026
Pages: 416
Weight: 1.23
Height: 0.93 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
When machines break, entire systems are exposed. Spare Parts tells the global history of replacement components and shows how their absence-or abundance-has shaped warfare, industry, and everyday life in the twentieth century. Philip Scranton traces the production, distribution, and use of spare parts across capitalist, socialist, and postcolonial economies from World War II through the Cold War. During WWII, parts proved as decisive as fuel or ammunition, determining whether tanks moved, aircraft flew, and factories functioned. In its aftermath, parts shortages became a chronic problem in centrally planned economies, while market societies faced different dilemmas created by rapid technological change, obsolescence, and corporate strategy. Focusing on vehicles, agricultural machinery, and radio and television technologies, Scranton reveals how repair practices differed across political systems. In socialist states, chronic shortages encouraged improvisation, scavenging, and informal exchange. In capitalist economies, parts became tools of profit, control, and planned abandonment, often pushing consumers toward replacement rather than repair. Scranton also follows spare parts beyond the superpowers, examining how postcolonial nations navigated inherited infrastructures and how parts functioned as instruments of geopolitical leverage. Charting the decline of repair culture in the late twentieth century, as durable vehicles and disposable electronics reshaped expectations about maintenance and longevity, Spare Parts reframes a familiar frustration as a central feature of modern history and offers new insight into technology, power, and the hidden systems that keep the world running.

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