The Industrial Revolution

By: Patrick N. Allitt, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Patrick N. Allitt

Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

From electric lights to automobiles to the appliances that make our lives easier at work and at home, we owe so much of our world to the Industrial Revolution. In this course, The Great Courses partners with the Smithsonian - one of the world's most storied and exceptional educational institutions - to examine the extraordinary events of this period and uncover the far-reaching impact of this incredible revolution. Over the course of 36 thought-provoking lectures, longtime Great Courses favorite Professor Allitt introduces you to the inventors, businessmen, and workers responsible for transforming virtually every aspect of our lives and fueling one of the greatest periods of innovation in human history.

The technological achievements of this era are nothing short of astonishing. Thanks to inventions such as the steam engine and processes such as large-scale iron smelting, industrial entrepreneurs were able to mechanize labor, which allowed for a host of new efficiencies such as division of labor, mass production, and global distribution.

You'll discover the science behind some of the most astounding inventions in modern history, including the spinning jenny, the incandescent light bulb, and the computer processor. You'll learn how these inventions came about and consider what effects these technologies had on every aspect of human life.

Get an inside look at the history of industrial innovation and explore the lives of engineers, inventors, architects, and designers responsible for changing the world - as well as ordinary workers who lost their livelihoods to new technologies and suffered from unsafe working conditions. The story of the Industrial Revolution is complex, and these lectures will leave you with a new appreciation for the amazing human achievements all around us.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2014 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2014 The Great Courses

Incredibly entertaining, balanced, comprehensive

Any additional comments?

This was a spectacularly well-researched, comprehensive and entertaining look at what has arguably been most important driving force of modern history. Patrick Allitt beautifully balances this tour of the big picture forces and trends that drove massive societal change with the fascinating personal stories of many, many individuals who played pivotal roles in driving these changes in their respective societies (the focus is appropriately first on Great Britain and then shifts to the people and parallel developments in the U.S. and other parts of the world).

I listened to this course immediately after finishing another of The Great Courses called Big History (also very highly recommended). It was the perfect follow-up, as that title puts the human Industrial Revolution in perspective as the latest era in a 13 billion year trend of increasing complexity in our universe. But that's another course..

I have listened to 4 or 5 of Professor Allitt's courses from The Great Courses series and they are all uniformly excellent. He gifted both as a scholar and as a storyteller. Highly recommended. 5 Stars!

You could do worse. But not better.

I have been an Audible subscriber for about a year. I prefer history and technology titles. I have enjoyed most of the books, but, there have been a few duds. Not so much the fault of the author or narrator, just a bad selection on my part.

"The Industrial Revolution", by Patrick Allitt, PH.D. I presume, is the best. An 18 hour lecture that was excellent. So much so, I'm going to listen again. I'll take notes and write a longer and better review, to follow. Every once in awhile, he slips into a Sean Connery accent.

As I listened to this, I could not help but notice, society, life and technology seems to be on a slow spinning Merry-Go-Round. An exciting invention or process, followed by a wide acceptance, then an abandonment. The invention seems to follow the same path, longer or shorter, of the inventor, but, ultimately they pass.

Finally, Dr. Allitt does not dwell on man made climate change or what ever the name is today. He acknowledges it, but does not dwell on it. He also clearly explains the way to correct the short comings of technology is "with" technology.

17March2019
I have just finished for the 2nd time. I had more time to digest the story. It is much better the second time around.

Spoiler Alert. If you haven't read or listened to this, here is the Industrial Revolution in 3 words. Invent. Improve. Replace.

Wonderful

Gives one a grand appreciation of how we arrived at this hopeful time in history.

For History Buffs an Excellent Chiice

I knew a lot about the industrial revolution but there were lots of important details and connections I wasn’t aware of. Well read.

Good History

With a bit of British pride, granted. Broad coverage, good narration, and some museum suggestions when in England.

Unmissable

This curse should be a formal part of the education for every member of society. Essential understanding on how the modern world came to be.

Amazing

I could not have asked for a better overview of the industrial revolution. The amount of detail and connection to modern life provided was superb.

Easy to listen to

Professor Allitt does an excellent job of telling the story of the industrial age. His story telling and reading skills make this book very enjoyable.

Very Detailed, Especially on England

Dr. Allitt is an insightful scholar and a fine lecturer. His approach to the Industrial Revolution is generally positive, with lectures often focusing on representative individuals for each era and topic. Heavily focused on the cradle of industrialization, England, through the first half of the course, he goes on to expand his scope to other western countries (U.S., France, Germany) as they enter the field as challengers. The course combines both a national and topic focus, basically sequential in terms of time, without ignoring issues like culture. He ends by talking about emerging industrial countries like India and the Asian Tigers and the problems of industrialization (pollution especially). He makes a pretty effective argument that despite it's pitfalls, industrialization has had a generally positive impact on human life and development and leaves us to hope it will contribute to solving its own problems.

His observation that English culture encouraged the wealthy industrialist to behave like the nobility and STOP working helps explain British failure to maintain a lead in industrialization in a way I hadn't considered before. Professor Allitt makes extensive and generally effective use of a range of primary documents and provides numerous suggestions for further reading. If I had one minor complaint, it was that the lectures themselves (which I simply listened to, rather than make use of any supporting materials) can seem to disconnect a bit from the course framework and get into the weeds, in terms of details, though Allitt does a masterful job bringing everything together at the end. I would highly recommend these lectures to both new and seasoned students of the Industrial Revolution.

Revolutionary

This is exactly what you'd expect: A quality overview of the Industrial Revolution and its effects worldwide. Definitely worth looking into if you're interested in history, industry, society or economics. It's the little details that will surprise you.