The Box That Changed the World: Containerization, A Revolution in Cargo Shipping
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Presented By
Presented by the Lyceum Society
Speaker: Arthur Donovan, PhD
This is a mid-day "Bring your own lunch" Brown Bag seminar.
Huge metal boxes that can be carried on ships, trains, and trucks, containers are the central artifacts in today's global economy. They can be seen everywhere, but these cargo boxes have been in use only since 1956. In less than 50 years they revolutionized surface freight transportation, liner shipping, port cities, and the railroad industry. This presentation will tell the story of containerization and how it has transformed world trade.
Arthur Donovan received his BS from Harvard in 1960, and PhD in the history of science from Princeton in 1970, serving on a U.S. Navy Destroyer in between schooling. He is the author of innumerable articles on such diverse subjects as theories of scientific change and the development of scientific chemistry. His latest book, coauthored with Joseph Bonney, is the title of our talk. We've asked him to bring copies to sign. A large-format, glossy-picture "coffee table" book, as he describes it, it will be $50 (20% off the publisher's price). Checks only.
He began teaching at the University of Illinois in Chicago, later at the University of Winnipeg, Canada, and Virginia Tech University. He was hired as chair of the Humanities Department of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, and after some years, remained as professor of humanities until retirement.