The Industrial Revolutions

This month we get to know the first wave of socialist thinkers – the Utopian socialists – including Robert Owen, Étienne Cabet, Jean Claude Leonard de Sismondi, Henri de Saint-Simone, Charles Fourier, and more. We also get to see how Radical associations in Britain – like the trade unions, co-ops, and Chartists – paved the way for a socialist movement.

Historians have generally had two very different takes on the Industrial Revolution. One take is that it left workers with a lot of grime, exploitation, and suffering. The other take is that it led to workers realizing greater material well-being, greater opportunity, and greater empowerment.Today we dig deeper into the lives of workers in the First Industrial Revolution – to tell the whole story. We’ll discuss pay and working conditions, the state of the social safety net, the roles of women and children in the mills and mines, the leisure opportunities available to workers, and the conditions of their homes and neighborhoods in the growing industrial cities.Support the Industrial Revolutions on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/indrevpod

From 1830 to 1848, a surge of liberalism swept through the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. It not only brought new political and economic reforms, it established the norms that still influence our politics and economic systems today.

At the tail-end of the First Industrial Revolution, a flurry of new goods and tools were invented by professional and hobbyist inventors alike, hoping to get rich in this new era of opportunity. Among the most significant of these breakthroughs were three tools I'm going to tell you about in this episode.

Advancements made in paper-making, printing, and lithography during the First Industrial Revolution led to many other developments. Among them: They set the foundation for modern advertising. This week we discuss some of the many characters from France, Great Britain, and the United States who gave rise to this new industry.HOLIDAY BONUS EPISODE COMING!Come back next week for the first Holiday Special of the Industrial Revolutions. We'll be talking about the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. If you'd like, use the links below to review the story beforehand...AUDIO BOOK VERSION: https://amzn.to/2Eqvp9y HARDCOVER VERSION: https://amzn.to/2YWoQoM KINDLE VERSION: https://amzn.to/35usOaz

In 1839, inventors in England and France simultaneously introduced the world to photography, putting “a new force in the hands of man.” We’ll learn about the scientists who made it possible, the initial experiments, and the impact it has had from the 19th Century to today.Support the Industrial Revolutions on Patreon: https://patreon.com/indrevpod

Without advancements in artificial light, much of the economic development and material improvement of the Industrial Revolution wouldn’t have been possible. So, in the days before electric lighting was possible, the people of the time needed to come up with alternatives. And innovators from Germany, France, the UK, and the modern-day US and Canada figured out other ways to illuminate the world around them.#ThankYouPatrons! If you want to join these Industrial Revolutionaries and become a sustaining supporter of the podcast, please sign up at https://patreon.com/indrevpod.

This week, we discuss the development and impact of the electric telegraph – a new means of communicating through metal wires at the end of the First Industrial Revolution. This episode covers:The possibilities made by Alessandro Volta’s batteryThe early telegraph systems made by von Sömmerring, Ronalds, and SchillingThe first functional telegraph made by William Cooke and Charles WheatstoneThe life of Samuel Morse and his more successful telegraphThe economic and political impacts of the telegraph in the 19th CenturySupport the Industrial Revolutions on Patreon: https://patreon.com/indrevpod

This week we explore the lives and careers Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Cornelius Vanderbilt – two of industrial history’s most prolific individuals. One was from the UK, one was from the US. One cared little about profits, the other cared for nothing but profits. But both men had a major impact on the Transport Revolution, spreading railroads across their respective countries and steamships across the world.Support the Industrial Revolutions on Patreon: https://patreon.com/indrevpod

At the start of the 19th Century, the U.S. economy was very similar to the cash-crop export economies of the soon-to-be-independent countries of Latin America. But a half century later, the U.S. was the second largest economy in the world, with industrial productivity on par with – or even greater than – Great Britain. How did it happen?This week, we discuss the causes and results of American industrialization, including:The Erie Canal and other transport infrastructureIndustry in CincinnatiSamuel Slater’s and Francis Cabot Lowell’s textile millsEli Terry’s clockmaking innovationsRichard March Hoe’s printing pressesThe American firearms industryBecome a Patreon supporter today: https://patreon.com/indrevpod