[Themaintainers] Themaintainers Digest, Vol 126, Issue 5

Thu Sep 24 14:09:35 EDT 2026

It looks like the listserv is stripping out the links to the discount flyer.

Richard Wheeler <https://www.linkedin.com/in/richarduwheeler/>
richarduwheeler at gmail.com
347.661.8476

On Mon, Sep 21, 2026 at 11:54 AM <themaintainers-request at lists.stevens.edu>
wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Spare Parts: A Global History of a Modern Problem, 1940?1980
>       (The Maintainers Steering Committee)
>    2. Discount coupon for Spare Parts By Philip Scranton
>       (The Maintainers Steering Committee)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2026 23:36:08 +0530
> From: The Maintainers Steering Committee <hello at themaintainers.org>
> To: themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu
> Subject: [Themaintainers] Spare Parts: A Global History of a Modern
>         Problem, 1940?1980
> Message-ID:
>         <CA+A9n=
> n0Lq2mTJ+zraD-aSc44Prg5Oi9qZQ4EEqrVgJ7JtpTOg at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> 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)
>
>
> ...........................................................................................................
>
> *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
> .................................................................
> 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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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:23:51 +0530
> From: The Maintainers Steering Committee <hello at themaintainers.org>
> To: themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu
> Subject: [Themaintainers] Discount coupon for Spare Parts By Philip
>         Scranton
> Message-ID:
>         <CA+A9n=nLNWcCsg0=JaSQtqk8DVRNyNmc7+GRCokEqpT=
> GP57Hg at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Much appreciated, and in reciprocity, please find attached the JHUP
> discount order flyer for Spare Parts, which cuts 30% off the list price.
> Perhaps you might share it with others on the Repair Cafe list.  Cheers,
> Phil
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> End of Themaintainers Digest, Vol 126, Issue 5
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