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Manufacturing Revolution

The Intellectual Origins of Early American Industry

Lawrence A. Peskin

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"While much has been written about the industrial revolution," writes Lawrence Peskin, "we rarely read about industrial revolutionaries." This absence, he explains, reflects the preoccupation of both classical and Marxist economics with impersonal forces rather than with individuals. In Manufacturing Revolution Peskin deviates from both dominant paradigms by closely examining the words and deeds of individual Americans who made things in their own shops, who met in small groups to promote industrialization, and who, on the local level, strove for economic independence.

In speeches, petitions...

"While much has been written about the industrial revolution," writes Lawrence Peskin, "we rarely read about industrial revolutionaries." This absence, he explains, reflects the preoccupation of both classical and Marxist economics with impersonal forces rather than with individuals. In Manufacturing Revolution Peskin deviates from both dominant paradigms by closely examining the words and deeds of individual Americans who made things in their own shops, who met in small groups to promote industrialization, and who, on the local level, strove for economic independence.

In speeches, petitions, books, newspaper articles, club meetings, and coffee–house conversations, they fervently discussed the need for large-scale American manufacturing a half-century before the Boston Associates built their first factory. Peskin shows how these economic pioneers launched a discourse that continued for decades, linking industrialization to the cause of independence and guiding the new nation along the path of economic ambition. Based upon extensive research in both manuscript and printed sources from the period between 1760 and 1830, this book will be of interest to historians of the early republic and economic historians as well as to students of technology, business, and industry.

Reviews

Reviews

A short review cannot do justice to everything that Peskin has crammed into a book that should prove of interest to business, cultural, economic, and social historians.

An exceptional study of the actors, events, and especially the ideas that laid the groundwork for industrialization in the early American republic.

Well-structured and clearly written.

Peskin argues that historians have focused too much attention on the process of the Industrial Revolution without properly considering the men who actually convinced the rest of society to go along for the ride.

Manufacturing Revolution is an important work that greatly enhances understanding of the events that led to the Industrial Revolution, and scholars with interests ranging from the effects of the American Revolution to the economy of the early republic will profit much by reading it.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
312
ISBN
9780801887505
Illustration Description
6 halftones
Table of Contents

Series Editor's Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: The Revolutionary Era
1. The British Economic System
2. Manufacturing and Revolution
3. Lurching toward Economic Independence
Part II: The

Series Editor's Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: The Revolutionary Era
1. The British Economic System
2. Manufacturing and Revolution
3. Lurching toward Economic Independence
Part II: The Critical Period
4. Mechanic Protectionism
5. Manufacturing Societies
6. Agricultural Societies
Part III: Toward Industrialization
7. Redefining Manufacturing
8. Promoting Manufacturing in the New Century
9. Political Parties and Manufactures
10. Harmony and Discord in the "Era of Good Feelings"
Epilogue
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index

Author Bio