[Themaintainers] Spare Parts: A Global History of a Modern Problem, 1940–1980

[The Maintainers Steering Committee]

Hi,

Glad to share this book by Philip Scranton. If you get a chance, I’d
encourage you to read it and would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks and regards

Purna

(on behalf of Maintainers Steering Committee)

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*Spare Parts: A Global History of a Modern Problem, 1940–1980*

*Philip Scranton*

TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / History Available 11/10/2026

$64.95 • Paperback • 9781421455440 -  432 pages • 6 x 9” • 24 b&w illus.

Also available as an ebook

When machines break, entire systems are exposed. Spare Parts tells the
global history of replacement components and shows how their absence—or
abundance—has shaped warfare, industry, and everyday life in the twentieth
century. Philip Scranton traces the production, distribution, and use of
spare parts across capitalist, socialist, and postcolonial economies from
World War II through the Cold War.

During WWII, parts proved as decisive as fuel or ammunition, determining
whether tanks moved, aircraft flew, and factories functioned. In its
aftermath, parts shortages became a chronic problem in centrally planned
economies, while market societies faced different dilemmas created by rapid
technological change, obsolescence, and corporate strategy. Focusing on
vehicles, agricultural machinery, and radio and television technologies,
Scranton reveals how repair practices differed across political systems. In
socialist states, chronic shortages encouraged improvisation, scavenging,
and informal exchange. In capitalist economies, parts became tools of
profit, control, and planned abandonment, often pushing consumers toward
replacement rather than repair. Scranton also follows spare parts beyond
the superpowers, examining how postcolonial nations navigated inherited
infrastructures and how parts functioned as instruments of geopolitical
leverage.

Charting the decline of repair culture in the late twentieth century, as
durable vehicles and disposable electronics reshaped expectations about
maintenance and longevity, Spare Parts reframes a familiar frustration as a
central feature of modern history and offers new insight into technology,
power, and the hidden systems that keep the world running.

“Spare parts make the modern world go round—yet we have so far lacked a
history of them. Well, here it finally is! Scranton’s book is a wild and
wonderful ride, full of delightful twists and turns.” —Lee Vinsel, Virginia
Tech
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Dear Liliana,
   This might be of interest to Maintainers concerned with long term
trajectories:
    This summer Phil Scranton (scranton at rutgers.edu) is completing the
ninth and final chapter of a monograph under contract to the Johns Hopkins
University Press: Spare Parts: A Global History of a Modern Problem,
1940-1980. The early chapters review and analyze parts practices and
problems within World War II armies and air forces (US, USSR, Germany),
plus home front challenges for keeping vehicles, radios, and farm equipment
operating. Postwar sections focus on radio/tv repair and auto parts in
the US and the Soviet Union, then shift to reviewing post-colonial and
developing nations'  Cold War era efforts to maintain legacy technologies
while evading long-term dependency on former colonizers. Spare Parts should
be published in Fall 2026.
   All best, Phil
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