Daniel Immerwahr

Like every other country's factories are bombed out and the United States' factories are going strong and in fact going stronger than they've ever been.

So you just have to gape at the shocking good fortune that this country has to have been in this position, not just where it was, but when it was.

So once you have the United States and the British Empire on 60 degrees, it just, I mean, this is the way standards work.

They snowball.

You know, if there's like a few evenly matched parties and they're all doing different things, you can imagine any standard prevailing.

But if you're in a world where most people do things one way,

then it's in your interest not to fight it.

It's in your interest to just quickly retool to get with the winning team as soon as possible.

And so the whole world is so materially dependent on what U.S.

factories are putting out that the world has to adjust.

And so the U.S.

standard prevails in so many different realms, big and small, visible and invisible.

U.S.

standards just absolutely dominate the field right after World War II.

My favorite example is the stop sign.

So...

you know, what should a stop sign be?

It's completely arbitrary, right?

We're used to them being red and octagonal, but like they don't have to be.

So what's the story with a stop sign?