Heroes of Invention: Technology, Liberalism and British Identity, 1750-1914

by Christine MacLeod

Overview

This innovative study adopts a distinct perspective on both the industrial revolution and nineteenth-century British culture. It investigates why inventors rose to heroic stature and popular acclaim in Victorian Britain, attested by numerous monuments, biographies and honours, and contends there was no decline in the industrial nation's self-esteem before 1914. In a period notorious for hero-worship, the veneration of inventors might seem unremarkable, were it not for their previous disparagement and the relative neglect suffered by their twentieth-century successors. Christine MacLeod argues that inventors became figureheads of various nineteenth-century factions, from economic and political liberals to impoverished scientists and radical artisans, who deployed their heroic reputation, not least to challenge the aristocracy's hold on power and the militaristic national identity that bolstered it. Although this was a challenge that ultimately failed, its legacy of ideas about invention, inventors, and the history of the industrial revolution remains highly influential.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521153829
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/24/2010
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Economic History - Second Series
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	476
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Christine MacLeod is Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the School of Humanities, University of Bristol. She is the author of Inventing the Industrial Revolution: the English Patent System, 1660-1800 (1988).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; List of illustrations; 1. Introduction: inventors and other heroes; 2. The new Prometheus; 3. The inventor's progress; 4. The apotheosis of James Watt; 5. Watt, inventor of the Industrial Revolution; 6. 'What's Watt?' The radical critique; 7. The technological pantheon; 8. Heroes of the Pax Britannica; 9. Debating the patent system; 10. The workers' heroes; 11. Maintaining the industrial spirit; 12. Science and the disappearing inventor; Epilogue. The Victorian legacy; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...presents numerous insights that will fascinate and enlighten those with more encompassing interests in social attitudes, perceptions and representations of techonology and culture, during the period of industrialization in Britain." -B. Zorina Khan, EH.NET

"It is well researched and fluently written." -Ron Harris, American Historical Review

"...an impressively judicious and learned book."
Journal of Modern History, Jordanna Bailkin, University of Washington

From the Publisher