Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn: Paul Revere and the Growth of American Enterprise
432Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn: Paul Revere and the Growth of American Enterprise
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Overview
Robert Martello combines a biographical examination of Revere with a probing study of the new nation’s business and technological climate. A silversmith prior to the Revolution and heralded for his patriotism during the war, Revere aspired to higher social status within the fledgling United States. To that end, he shifted away from artisan silversmithing toward larger, more involved manufacturing ventures such as ironworking, bronze casting, and copper sheet rolling. Drawing extensively on the Revere Family Papers, Martello explores Revere’s vibrant career successes and failures, social networks, business practices, and the groundbreaking metallurgical technologies he developed and employed. Revere’s commercial ventures epitomized what Martello terms proto-industrialization, a transitional state between craft work and mass manufacture that characterizes the broader, fast-changing landscape of the American economy. Martello uses Revere as a lens to view the social, economic, and technological milieu of early America while demonstrating Revere’s pivotal role in both the American Revolution and the rise of industrial America.
Original and well told, this account argues that the greatest patriotic contribution of America's Midnight Rider was his work in helping the nation develop from a craft to an industrial economy.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780801897580 |
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Publisher: | Johns Hopkins University Press |
Publication date: | 11/01/2010 |
Series: | Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology |
Edition description: | 20 |
Pages: | 432 |
Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d) |
Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Paul Revere: Patriot, Artisan, Manager, and Recordkeeper 4
Craft, Industry, and the Proto-industry Transition 6
1 Artisan, Silversmith, and Businessman (1754-1775) 11
Growing Up in Colonial America 15
Paul Revere: Artisan 20
Paul Revere: Silversmith 36
Paul Revere: Networker and Businessman 52
2 Patriot, Soldier, and Handyman of the Revolution (1775-1783) 61
Patriot Resistance and the Role of Artisans 63
"Listen my children and you shall hear..." 75
After the Ride: Martial Longings and the Pursuit of Honor 78
Mechanic for the Revolution: Engraving, Mill Design, and Cannon Casting 83
3 Mercantile Ambitions and a New Look at Silver (1783-1789) 91
Quest for Gentility: The Would-be Merchant 94
Return to Silver: Products, Methods, and the Shift toward Standardization 102
Technological Advances: The Rolling Mill and Sheet Silver 107
Labor Practices: Combining Old and New 111
4 To Run a "Furnass": The Iron Years (1788-1792) 119
Iron from Antiquity to America 122
Revere the Founder: Climbing the Iron Learning Curve 130
Technology: Equipment, Production Methods, and Products 139
Labor in the Post-Artisan Mode 142
Raw Material Availability and Environmental Impacts 146
Capital Concerns: Sales, Profits, and Management 151
5 Bells, Cannon, and Malleable Copper (1792-1801) 156
Becoming a Bell Maker: An Art and a Science 160
Cannon Founding and Government Contracting 173
Malleable Copper: Bolts, Spikes, and Technical Experimentation 187
6 Paul Revere's Last Ride: The Road to Rolling Copper (1798-1801) 204
The Early Federal Government and Benjamin Stoddert's Navy 206
The Tentative Growth of American Manufacturing 214
The Search for Sheathing 219
The Road to Rolling Copper 225
7 The Onset of Industrial Capitalism: Managerial and Labor Adaptations (1802-1811) 245
America's Transition to Industrial Capitalism 247
Investment Capital, Managerial Practices, and the Role of Government 253
The Changing Face of Labor 273
8 Becoming Industrial: Technological Innovations and Environmental Implications (1802-1811) 283
Technical Practices and Improvements 285
Standardization and a Tour of Revere's Product Lines 296
Revere and the Environment: Raw Material Shortages and Procurement Strategies 307
Conclusion 324
Industrial Dawn: Proto-industry Revisited 332
Tools of the Trade: Components of Revere's Success 335
The Pursuit of Happiness: Revere's Goals and Identity 340
Acknowledgments 345
Appendixes
1 Major Events in the Narratives of Paul Revere and America 349
2 Four Proto-industrial Production Factors and Major Linkages 351
3 Prevalent Craft and Industrial Practices in the Proto-industrial Period 352
4 Selected Revere Engravings 354
5 Furnace Startup Expenses for 1787-1788 355
6 April 1796 Payments to Faxon 356
7 Revere's Second Letter to Benjamin Stoddert, February 26, 1800 357
8 Employee Salaries, 1802-1806 359
9 Typical Stages in the Growth of a Large Technological System 360
Notes 361
Index 413
What People are Saying About This
"A path-breaking, very fine work of history. Martello spells out a theory of proto-industrialization that I believe will become incorporated into the work of American economic history and fills an important space in our understanding of America's transition to industrialization."
A path-breaking, very fine work of history. Martello spells out a theory of proto-industrialization that I believe will become incorporated into the work of American economic history and fills an important space in our understanding of America's transition to industrialization.
Howard B. Rock, Florida International University
A path-breaking, very fine work of history. Martello spells out a theory of proto-industrialization that I believe will become incorporated into the work of American economic history and fills an important space in our understanding of America's transition to industrialization.—Howard B. Rock, Florida International University