May 30, 2025

photographs from adobe stock; illustration by keilani rodriguez/globe staff Anytime you unbox an iPhone or MacBook, you’re greeted by the phrase, “Designed by Apple in California.” The gist is clear: The coolest part of creating the device — designing it — happened in the United States. Not included in that tagline: where the product was made. This speaks volumes about how we think of industry in the United States. Manufacturing is in the news every day, and with all the talk of boosting US industry, it can be hard to see that we’re already at the start of a new industrial revolution. A new wave of industrial companies, many in New England, is leveraging new technologies to create jobs, empower workers, and address climate change. Fortunately, the innovators who spurred the first industrial revolution imparted wisdom that can help guide us in this pivotal moment. Advertisement In my new book, The New Lunar Society: An Enlightenment Guide to the Next Industrial Revolution, I explore how the industrialists of the mid-18th century provided a road map for making improvements to human life. Ben Franklin, for example, even listed industry as one of his famous 13 virtues, defining it in part as a sustained effort toward useful goals. Such effort was integral to the first Industrial Revolution. It took James Watt, whose improvements to the steam engine are credited with sparking the revolution, some two decades of improvements and modifications for his product to achieve what is known today as a “product-market fit.” And for every figure like Watt who had a “eureka” moment, there was someone like his business partner Matthew Boulton, a metal manufacturer who helped Watt with capital, know-how, and access to tools and skilled workers. Advertisement The early industrialists knew that what is today called “process innovation,” making things better, leads to “product innovation,” making better things. In other words, actually making something teaches you how to invent the next thing. In reality, Apple engineers have spent a great deal of time in China understanding how the phones are made, so they can make the next ones better. The situation facing industry is far more complex than it was 250 years ago, of course. The mass production of the 20th century is giving way to new means of production and new forms of work. Digital technologies allow companies to spread manufacturing across geographical locations, to increase productivity. Supply chain disruptions, global tensions, trade wars, and a changing climate are showing how fragile our industrial systems can be. Artificial intelligence’s intense demand on electric power reveals the tight link between the digital and physical worlds. Apple’s famous tagline shows our preoccupation with product improvement over process improvement. For too long we have been told that all work in developed countries should be “knowledge work,” entirely divorced from making things. In industry after industry, from solar panels to semiconductor chips and electric cars, American inventions have been scaled elsewhere. This removes us from the cutting edge. But companies in our own backyard are forging a different path. Aerospace manufacturer Beta Technologies makes electric airplanes in Vermont, instead of outsourcing. Somerville-based Tulip develops digital tools to help factory workers improve their workflows. MIT spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems, based in Devens, plans to build a commercial power plant in Virginia that generates clean energy through fusion technology. VulcanForms, another MIT-born company, creates metal parts through 3-D printing, using a fraction of the energy and materials than a typical factory. Advertisement I often visit such cutting-edge companies and see digital-first design and production flows, and young people of all education levels working with their hands. Graduates of vocational schools are designing new production lines. This dovetails with a surge in interest in trades; the number of students enrolled in vocational schools grew by 13.6 percent last year following a 16-percent leap in 2023, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The point is that young Americans — new industrialists — are devoting themselves to making things for the common good. Politicians of both parties have enacted policies to encourage the growth of US industry. The specific actions, whether tariffs or tax credits for clean tech, differ a great deal from Democratic to Republican administrations, but the desire to revitalize US industry goes across the aisle. But no government policy will be effective if young people from all walks of life do not take up the mantle of building and maintaining our world. The country needs this generation of builders who are excited about working with their hands, about the satisfactions of building the world, and who see that work as building our communities. David A. Mindell is a professor at MIT and author of The New Lunar Society: An Enlightenment Guide to the Next Industrial Revolution (MIT Press, 2025) and cofounder of .Unless, an investment firm focused on industrial transformation. He is a founding member of MIT’s Initiative for New Manufacturing. Send comments to magazine@globe.com. Advertisement