Nathan Bashaw is a designer.

The Evolution of the U.S. Automobile Industry and Detroit as its Capital

Anyone who’s interested in how industries emerge and evolve (cough, tech startups, cough) should give this a read.

In its first fifteen years the U.S. automobile industry was characterized by a great deal of entry and the number of firms exceeded 200.  Despite robust growth in the market for automobiles, the industry subsequently sustained a prolonged shakeout in the number of producers and evolved to be an oligopoly dominated by three firms