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3.1 out of 5 stars
3.1 out of 5
8 global ratings
5 star
22%
4 star
30%
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10%
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28%
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Sue Truitt
1.0 out of 5 stars Most disappointed.
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2018
Verified Purchase
We needed to return it because 2 of the 3 discs were unreadable. Most disappointed.
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Gilbert M. Stack
VINE VOICE
4.0 out of 5 stars A Tour Deforce through Industrialization
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2020
When I teach the industrial revolution in my Western Civilization class, I spend about three hours covering it. In this superb Great Courses book, Patrick Allitt spends a little more than eighteen hours covering one of the most important phenomena in all of human history. Allitt doesn’t hide from the negative consequences that go hand in hand with industrialization, but neither does he lose track of the hugely consequential goods that have accompanied it—a population eight times the size of the preindustrial world, a standard of living unimaginably good in comparison to what came before, longer and healthier lives, greater security, greater leisure and entertainment possibilities, and the list goes on and on.

Allitt walks you through not just the impact on production, but social, political, and environmental changes that resulted from industrialization as well. It is a genuinely positive book looking to how the unintended negative consequences of industrialization are being tackled to make a better world for everyone. It’s a worthwhile book for anyone interested in the subject.
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NJ
3.0 out of 5 stars This informative lecture series is quite good in the first part when it describes the early ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2015
This informative lecture series is quite good in the first part when it describes the early days of the revolution. The content is rich with new information and with vivid descriptions while the Professor is talking about steam ships, railways, pottery and similar topics.

The pace begins to slacken when the lectures leave the shores of the UK and move from the items of, let's say, "the true interests of typical museums" to modern settings. The advent and the rise of the American industries and manufacturing is still somewhat fascinating in the lectures that focus on Rockefeller, Carnegie, Henry Ford and the likes. However, the descriptions provided turn increasingly inadequate and sound perfunctory on the modern topics where many readers may already know a lot already.

The shallowness reaches the jarring levels when the topics shift to the developments outside UK/US or move to the post 1920 era. If only the author has focussed more on the 18th and the 19th century developments, taken the listeners even deeper on those subjects and left the rest.
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Brittany Nguyen
5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Great Course I've Completed
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2020
This is an incredibly interesting and informative course. I've completed probably 15 courses, and this is in the top 3. When I'm finished I'm going to buy one of the other courses by the same professor. He is outstanding. Super interesting.
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SoniaBr
5.0 out of 5 stars You OUGHT TO listen to this!
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2014
No one can say it has general culture, understands the world we live in, without listening to this magnificent course! Though I hold a Ph.D., I felt like a child: I wish I heard this course before going to graduate school!
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John J Green
5.0 out of 5 stars Industrial Grade Education ....
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2015
Excellent overview of the era. Both the content and the delivery are engaging, entertaining and informative.
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Mr.
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2015
Allitt is a great speaker and he delivers again on this course. Very interesting in detail and overall scope.
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Samuel
2.0 out of 5 stars He also says that smart people argue on different sides of the climate change ...
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2016
For the most part, the course was enjoyable and informative. Unforgivable, however, was the instructor's lack of focus on the future of our resources as well as climate change. He basically states that we will have resources far into the future, though does not broach the topic of the downsides of technological advances in fracking and other methods we are now utilizing to obtain fossil fuels and other materials. He also says that smart people argue on different sides of the climate change debate. Of the many surveys I have come across asking people in climate science whether they believe that humans play a significant role in climate change, the lowest number I have seen was 82% with many surveys in the upper 90%. So there is that.
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