| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.3

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Doron S. Ben-Atar. Trade Secrets: Intellectual Piracy and the Origins of American Industrial Power. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2004. Pp. xxi, 281. $38.00.
Although based almost exclusively on secondary sources and well-known collections of primary sources, Doron S. Ben-Atar's book is a useful, well-written synthesis on an important topic. The book carefully establishes that early Americans, unofficially aided and abetted by the national and state governments, engaged in what we today call intellectual piracy. They claimed foreign inventions as their own, smuggled plans, models, and in some cases functioning machines out of Europe, and enticed foreign artisans to emigrate to America.	1
The book contains an introduction and seven chapters laid out chronologically and thematically. Chapter one provides legal and historical context. Chapter two argues that British support for colonial commercial development soon devolved into fear of economic rivalry. In chapter three, Ben-Atar argues that Benjamin Franklin established a "path not taken" (p. 77) by giving away his inventions free of charge and arguing that others should do likewise. Chapter four covers Americans' largely successful pilfering of skilled artisans and machines from Europe, primarily Britain, during the Confederation. Chapter five discusses the role of intellectual property rights in the coming, formulation, and ratification of the U.S. Constitution. In chapter six, Ben-Atar describes the new federal government's "brief flirtation with technology piracy" (p. 183): namely, Alexander Hamilton's Report on Manufactures (1791) and his active support of the "Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures" (pp. 162–171). In chapter seven, Ben-Atar quickly brings the story up to the 1851 Crystal Palace exhibition, which showcased the superiority of American technology.	. . .

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