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What the Industrial Revolution Did for Us

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What the Industrial Revolution Did for Us (Hardcover)

by Dan Cruickshank (Foreword), Gavin Weightman (Author)

3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: BBC Books (16 Oct 2003)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0563487941
ISBN-13: 978-0563487944
Product Dimensions: 24.8 x 19.2 x 2.2 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 134,646 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories:
#18 in Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Industrial Revolution
#26 in Books > History > Social & Economic History > Industrialisation

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Gavin Weightman is a noted historian and film-maker. His latest book, What the Industrial Revolution Did For Us accompanies the BBC TV series. The book is made up of six detailed and beautifully illustrated chapters covering aspects of the Industrial Revolution including the invention of new machinery and technology, the changing face of the landscape and the improvement in transport; the working conditions of the poor and the changes in law, advances in medicine and the development of new military weaponry; the emergence of cotton and the arrival of tea. The stars of the show are the visionary Renaissance men, the polymaths inventing, manufacturing, and engineering who gave the revolution its momentum.

Weightman's prose style is clear, engaging and economical so although this is a detailed and scholarly work, the narrative moves along at a fairly rapid pace. As one might expect the book is full of fine illustrations, drawings, paintings, cartoons, advertisements, maps and designs as well as first-hand eye-witness accounts, excerpts from books, letters and diaries. Overall, the book is well written, well paced, highly educative, very stylish and an accessible introduction to the period which shaped the modern world. --Larry Brown

Product Description

"What the Industrial Revolution Did For Us" is a journey back in time, giving the reader an insight into how British life was transformed between 1750 and 1830, and how it shaped the world we live in today. So what did the Industrial Revolution do for us? Without the huge advances in science, engineering and medicine and the cast of extraordinarily colourful inventors and scientists who revolutionised the way we think, our modern world would be very different. We would be without vaccinations against contagious diseases and have no anaesthetics for surgery. The industrial revolution also gave birth to our national obsession with tea drinking, the mass production of crockery for the house-proud newly emerging Middle Classes and the transformation of clothing worn by the ordinary man and woman. As well as huge leaps in the evolution of machinery and manufacturing, our transport system was completely overhauled as the first ever steam trains emerged, roads were drastically improved, and canal mania took over Britain. The great industrial cities burgeoned and London became the international power it still is today. From the quacks advertising their potions to the new Middle Classes to the great innovators and entrepreneurs such as Robert Stephenson, James Watt and Josiah Wedgwood, "What the Industrial Revolution Did For Us" takes us right to the heart of the excitement of this revolutionary age.

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3.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Like the curate's egg, 23 Dec 2005

By	Ralph Blumenau (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This is a book accompanying a television series, so one would not expect anything very profound. The first three of the six chapters are a perfectly readable and lavishly illustrated introduction to the First Industrial Revolution, though there is only one sentence (in the sixth chapter) about Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The other three chapters, on London, medicine and weaponry seem to fit ill with the title of the book. We have something on the growth of London, but one wonders what the extensive description of pleasure gardens has to do with the Industrial Revolution. The only thing that development in medicine “did for us” is Jenner’s work on vaccination. Whether that has anything to do with the Industrial Revolution is questionable, and certainly the pages on useless patent medicines and on body snatching can’t be said to have done much for us. The description of weaponry (ineffectual rockets and early torpedoes, fortifications like the Martello Towers) likewise have done little for us. Unfortunately, as the note on Further Readings tells us, there seem to be very few general surveys in print of the First Industrial Revolution, but one that is recommended is Phyllis Deane’s The First Industrial Revolution, and anyone seriously interested in the subject would do better to consult that work than this one, and Eric Hobsbawm’s excellent Industry to Empire is not mentioned in the bibliography at all.

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4.0 out of 5 stars as good as expected, 10 Sep 2009

By	Marianne Leonhardt - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having seen the films on TV I wanted a written version.
This book completely fulfils my expectations. It is interesting to read a good source for teaching.

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