Without logistics everyday life would be impossible, and there would be no globalisation either. But how did it become this engine for the flow of materials? In this pioneering study, Monika Dommann examines the flow of goods from a surprising perspective. Looking at situations where the flow is halted, she considers the conditions required for flow: from the connection of grain silos to the railway in the 19th century to the transport of art from colonial times to the present day, from standardised vessels such as palettes and containers to the construction of ramps and high-bay warehouses, from planning via flowcharts to the computer, she tells the peculiar, and always political, history of logistics - which shows its true colours when the flow stops.
Questions answered include the following: What actually flows in logistics, and why? How did logistics become an engine for the flow of materials, which is still trusted even when everything changes from how it was previously? What knowledge do these machines contain? And in what cultural technology are they anchored? Are logistics not also inherently political? How can goods continue to flow when people have to stand still? And what happens in those locations where everything comes to a halt?
"Dommann shows just how broad the field of logistics really is, and looks far beyond the economic horizon." - Der Standard, Johannes Lau
"Not an easy read, but an important, insightful one" - SWR 2 “Lesenswert”
"Her accessible "History of Logistics" does the best that historical research can do: it shows how our present came into being." - Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Claudia Mäder
"A fabulously interesting infrastructure history of globalisation. Enlightening, eye-opening." - Welt am Sonntag, Marc Reichwein
"Monika Dommann provides consistently exciting insights into the history of logistics" - Technikgeschichte - Heft 4/2023, Mathias Denecke
