In the summer of 2008, on the heels of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, the U.S. economy stumbled badly, eventually contracting more than 5 percent from its peak. Manufacturing, for almost a century the engine that has driven the American economy, fared much worse—contracting more than 20 percent from peak to trough. Such a collapse made recovery all the more difficult for the economy at large because manufacturing—while less than 12 percent of GDP—remains one of the most influential economic sectors.