The Industrial Revolutionaries

The so-called 'industrial revolution' is most commonly presented as a history of machines or a relentless process of innovation springing out of the eighteenth century. But, as this vivid social history reminds us, machines are mere gadgets unless there are people to make good use of them. In The Industrial Revolutionaries, Gavin Weightman charts of the spread of industrialism from Britain to Europe, North America and Japan, resurrecting many unsung pioneers from obscurity, and putting a few luminaries in their place. He interweaves accounts of the achievements of giants such as Trevithick, Stevenson, Watt, Wedgwood, Daimler, Bessemer and Edison with lesser known characters who carried industrialism from one nation to another, like the young Japanese Samurai who risked their lives to learn the secrets of Western industrial might. The Industrial Revolutionaries is a panoramic history, taking the reader from the ironworks of rural England to the emergence of the few great powers at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. 'Weightman has managed the difficult task of producing an account of the industrialising world that gives proper honour to his chosen grand narrative as well as to the hundreds of little local stories that both nourish and complicate it... Subtle and varied, meticulous and fascinating.' Kathryn Hughes, Guardian 'Ambitious... clear-sighted... fascinating... Instead of simply replacing one set of triumphalist myths with an alternative one, Weightman practises real history.' Brian Morton, Sunday Herald 'For Weightman, modernity was created not only by ingenious inventers but by talented entrepreneurs... it is one of the pleasures of Weightman's book to see how technology rose above nationality... There are many wonderful details that I feel I am a better person for knowing: that 'gin' in cotton gin is a corruption of 'engine'; that Brunel invented a card-shuffling machine to help those with arthritis; that an early artificial dye was synthesised using the uric acid from a boa constrictor in London Zoo... Weightman's book shows... that real progress is made by co-operative competition, not the lone genius.' Judith Flanders, Sunday Telegraph 'In this lively study, there is little room for the dry academic prose that so often makes economic histories a painful reading experience. Instead, we have a wealth of vivid portraits of figures from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries....Weightman is excellent at demolishing some of the myths of the Industrial Revolution.' Leo McKinstry, Literary Review History www.groveatlantic.co.uk Image coutesy of [ ] Cover design by Ghost.