The American Synthetic Organic Chemicals Industry: War and Politics, 1910–1930 by Kathryn Steen (review)

Kathryn Steen begins The American Synthetic Organic Chemicals Industry: War and Politics, 1910–1930 with the arrival of a German submarine to Baltimore Harbor on 9 July 1916—more than a year after the infamous 7 May 1915 sinking of the Lusitania—where it unloaded its cargo, synthetic dyes. She then traces the development of the American synthetic organic chemicals industry by positioning it in three individually defined but related periods and concludes with a more focused history of several specific companies. Her claim is that “synthetic organic chemicals became deeply entwined with the American political economy during World War I and the following decade,” and that U.S. policymaking was a crucial contributor to the rise of the American industry to international prominence by the 1930s (p. 3).

In America before the Great War, the organic chemicals industry played a small role in supplying products to a national market, which was overwhelmingly dominated by German firms. German companies out-competed nascent U.S. businesses in terms of training chemists, innovation, and market share. The war years saw America’s organic chemicals industry grow and prosper as companies adjusted to supply both domestic and foreign markets. The federal government assisted this process in a number of important ways, not the least of which was the Trading with the Enemy Act, which effectively ended commercial dealings with most German companies. This period also saw the beginning of the industry’s consolidation as trade associations, such as the American Dyestuff Manufacturers’ Association, formed to represent the interests of the U.S. organic chemicals industry generally.

The years from 1921 until 1930 were characterized by the industry’s continued growth as companies sought to maintain the protections that had served them well during the war. As Steen demonstrates, the “American dyes and pharmaceuticals manufacturers lobbied for and received beneficial federal policies, many of which would have been politically inconceivable without” the conflict (p. 76). In this sense the war was a catalyst for the development of policies that privileged U.S. firms over German firms, followed by protectionist policies and laws after the war that played an enormous role in the rise of the American industry. This was done, though, at the expense of smaller firms and at the expense of chemists themselves who were increasingly marginalized during the 1920s as “ignorant arrogant executives” took control and firms consolidated (p. 253).

To demonstrate the state of the industry by 1930, Steen looks at five companies. Each shows how far the U.S. industry as a whole had come over the previous twenty years. The Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation demonstrates the waning control that chemists actually had over the industry. Clarence Derick, a research chemist from the University of Illinois, echoed the widespread belief “that corporations led by financial men rather than chemists undervalued research and the role it played in the chemical industry” by minimizing scientists’ roles in important decisions (p. 253). Steen uses DuPont to show how emphasis on broad-based research and product development had changed since the war as a consequence of its focus on relationships with universities and a willingness to network with chemical industries outside the United States. At Dow, leadership encouraged cooperation between research divisions within the company by integrating a property-sharing plan as an inducement for teamwork, and it focused on technological solutions at which the United States already excelled, such as “designing equipment to make large quantities of material at low cost,” which helped offset the high cost of American labor, something that was becoming a problem as laws and tariffs on foreign products relaxed or expired during the 1920s (p. 273). Chapters on these industry giants are complemented by case studies examining smaller firms, like Union Carbide, which survived by focusing on specialized products such as Prestone antifreeze, and the Bakelite Corporation, which enjoyed enormous success by catering to specific markets—the automobile...