- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Channel 4 Books (7 April 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752218700
- ISBN-13: 978-0752218700
- Product Dimensions: 24.6 x 19 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 500,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The Day The World Took Off, explores as its subtitle says, "the roots of the Industrial Revolution". And it does it in a novel way by working from the heights, or depths, depending on your point of view, of the Industrial Revolution in the 1830s back over 10,000 years to the beginnings of the domestication of nature. In doing so, it takes us from Victorian England through Europe to China and Japan where it all began. The Dugan's bring history to life for the general reader in this fascinating and beautifully illustrated book, supplemented by a useful reading list and index.
There are plenty of surprises here. The authors have been able to use the contributions to the TV series from five internationally known academics. These lift basically familiar stories such as the growth of manufacture and the railway network in Britain by giving new details and insights. The use of quotes from contemporary writers and observers provides the tone of the times. An extract from the Liverpool Mercury tells how the local MP, William Huskisson, was the first fatality, being run over by the Rocket at the opening of the new Liverpool-Manchester railway. Although a spin-off from a Channel 4 TV series produced by David Dugan, the book easily stands alone as an entertaining and informative insight into a topic which we all think we know something about.--Douglas Palmer
Product Description
Based on the arguments of internationally acclaimed academics coupled with craftsmen's demonstrations, this book makes use of original machines, diaries and first-hand accounts to provide a long-term history of the social, economic and intellectual developments which have shaped the differential development of the modern world.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I would recommend this to anyone at all interested in the industrial revolution. One of the key questions is why it happened in Britain first, and not say China, where they developed gunpowder in the 1300s. The book provides complex and thought through answers, the best of which include the fact that Britain is a tea and beer drinking nation, and this prevented the spread of cholera as in other countries. The reason : the formation of both beer and tea as drinks requires boiling water, thereby killing germs. However, where this book reinforces conventional views about why Britain underwent the Industrial Revolution first is when it talks about the "X-factor" needed for industrialisation. This X-factor in my view was a combination of the enterprise of the British people, the free democratic system, and the existence of a religiously tolerant society.
The book combines insight with comprehensive analysis, and hard hitting stories like the one about the launch of the first railway with an unstinting effort to reveal the true factors behind the revolution. It is a superb feat.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
You may have formed the impression that this book is a cheap commercialised accompaniment to a TV series but you'd be wrong. Although the book is not a work of academic rigour and it is quite short, it's analysis and insights into the human development in general are amazing.
Although the book is titled "The the day the world took off" this book is not narrowly centred on the industrial revolution, it charts thousands of years of human development from prehistory to the 19th century. The book is more of an anthropological work than one of history or science, it sets out to explain why certain peoples and civilisations developed faster than others and what the key inventions, historical events and numerous other factors were that caused this.
The book starts of in the modern age when the industrial revolution has just occurred and works backwards. This unconventional layout may seem odd but it is perfect for what the author is trying to do. His goal is to explain what what happened and then try and find the factors that caused these things to happen. This method is best because he is not simply documenting events in history, the book is an inquiry into why things turned out the way they did. This approach also aids curiosity because when questions pop into your head about why such and such events happened in history we tend to have to work backwards instead of forwards looking for causes and explanations that happened before the events in question.
The book provides very insightful and original explanations for many of the key questions of human development. Some of these are; why did the industrial revolution not happen in China since it was so far ahead of Europe just a few hundred years before?, why did certain regions of the world fall so far behind Europe and Asia, such as Africa and pre-Columbus America? and why did the industrial revolution happen in Britain and not a more powerful and technologically advanced mainland European nation?
This book provides answers to these questions and many more. I have read many history books and had a fairly good knowledge of most of the events in the book but this book helped me understand history in a much clearer way. Whereas reading most history books will give you an explanation as to why certain events happened from a very short term perspective of maybe 10-20 years this book gives you the big picture of human history and its technological, cultural and social evolution. For me having the big picture in my mind has helped me to frame every history book I've read since, to fit them into the big picture of human history.
Although the book is titled "The the day the world took off" this book is not narrowly centred on the industrial revolution, it charts thousands of years of human development from prehistory to the 19th century. The book is more of an anthropological work than one of history or science, it sets out to explain why certain peoples and civilisations developed faster than others and what the key inventions, historical events and numerous other factors were that caused this.
The book starts of in the modern age when the industrial revolution has just occurred and works backwards. This unconventional layout may seem odd but it is perfect for what the author is trying to do. His goal is to explain what what happened and then try and find the factors that caused these things to happen. This method is best because he is not simply documenting events in history, the book is an inquiry into why things turned out the way they did. This approach also aids curiosity because when questions pop into your head about why such and such events happened in history we tend to have to work backwards instead of forwards looking for causes and explanations that happened before the events in question.
The book provides very insightful and original explanations for many of the key questions of human development. Some of these are; why did the industrial revolution not happen in China since it was so far ahead of Europe just a few hundred years before?, why did certain regions of the world fall so far behind Europe and Asia, such as Africa and pre-Columbus America? and why did the industrial revolution happen in Britain and not a more powerful and technologically advanced mainland European nation?
This book provides answers to these questions and many more. I have read many history books and had a fairly good knowledge of most of the events in the book but this book helped me understand history in a much clearer way. Whereas reading most history books will give you an explanation as to why certain events happened from a very short term perspective of maybe 10-20 years this book gives you the big picture of human history and its technological, cultural and social evolution. For me having the big picture in my mind has helped me to frame every history book I've read since, to fit them into the big picture of human history.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An incredibal feat, mapping the causes that consequesened the birth of the global nation. Tracking different technologies through different times and cultures, to their culmination in single technologies, with world changing applications. The book that Karl Marx should have written, unemotive, precise and prophetic! This book is more than magnificent! It represents an evolution in sociological research. It is my favorite book.
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