The Industrial Revolutions

First came the French, led by Napoleon, ending feudal economic traditions across Europe. Then came the British, bringing their knowledge of new, industrial production methods and business practices. And as a result, the first Industrial Revolution spread to pockets of France, the Low Countries, Germany, and Eastern Europe.Characters in this episode include:John Holker, a former Jacobite who spied on the British for French industryJacques-Constantin and Auguste Charles Perier, who built steam engines and water pumpsClaude Perier, who built a textile-printing empire and became an investment bankerAdolphe and Eugene Schneider, who built a metallurgical empire in Le CreusotLouis Motte-Bossut, who built massive textile factories but couldn’t get his parents’ approvalLieven Bauwens, who built Belgium’s first mechanized spinning millWilliam and John Cockerill, Anglo-Belgians who made industrialization happen across EuropeAlfred Krupp, who created a steel empire in Germany and provided generous benefits for his workersErnest Knoop, who spread industrialization to RussiaThe Silesian weavers, who rose up against the local capitalists and the Prussian authorities 

If you compare the histories of Great Britain and France in the 16th through 18th Centuries, you see how they led to very different transitions into modernity. For Britain it was the Industrial Revolution. For France it was the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. This is what Eric Hobsbawm called the “dual revolution.”Today, we explore Hobsbawm further as we step over to France and see how the chaos of these years transformed the political, religious, and economic orders of Continental Europe.

As the first President of the United States, George Washington appointed two cabinet secretaries who went to war with each other. Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson fought on many fronts, but perhaps the most significant front was Hamilton’s economic agenda. Looking to the recent success of Great Britain, Hamilton tried to bring the Industrial Revolution to America – and Jefferson tried to stop him. In this episode, we’ll discuss the intricacies of Hamilton’s plan, why he fought for it, and why Jefferson fought against it.

In this episode, we explore the underlying intellectual reasons for the American Revolution, and how that Revolution reshaped those ideas into a philosophy that would take over the world as industrialization spread.

In the late 18th Century, increasing religious freedom led to violent rioting in London and Birmingham. The Quakers, meanwhile, kicked a gun manufacturer out of their denomination. And without knowing it, Enlightenment thinkers started to develop a brand-new religion – a religion that most of the world believes in today.

After the suppression of the Puritans, religiosity died down in Great Britain and British America. Then, in the mid-18th Century, a revival of nonconformist churches swept over the English world. And it had a profound impact on the coming Industrial Revolution.In this week’s episode, we’ll talk about the two main Protestant forces behind this first Great Awakening – the Baptists and the Methodists – and how they shaped the new, industrial working class.

As the first Industrial Revolution was beginning to turn the world upside down, the Age of Enlightenment produced scientists whose breakthroughs helped shape that upside-down world. Today we discuss three of them: Antoine Lavoisier; Dr. Edward Jenner; and Sir Humphrey Davy.

The Industrial Revolutions were made possible thanks to the Scientific Revolution, which began centuries earlier as militaries needed to invest in new ways to gain an edge in battle. With it came the Scientific Method and advancements in chemistry. Starting in the mid-18th Century, a few individuals took those chemistry lessons out of the laboratory and applied them to industry. These are their stories.In this episode, we’ll cover: John Roebuck and his works mass-producing sulfuric acid; Nicolas Leblanc and his method for manufacturing soda ash; Charles Tennant and his bleach powder empire; and more!

To support the National Alliance on Mental Illness: NAMI.orgWhen Joseph Bramah hired Henry Maudslay to help him make locks, little did he know his assistant would go on to change the world. Maudslay hired and trained a new generation of engineers who gave us everything from standardized tools to the powerful industrial machines of the future.

To support the Independent Labrador Retriever Rescue of Southern California (or to adopt a dog if you live there): http://www.indilabrescue.org -To get your favorite team’s apparel AND support the podcast, use this link: https://industrialrevolutionspod.com/fanatics - The principles of mass production at large worksites – through a combination of technological innovations and improved methods of organizing labor – was applied to a variety of industries in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries.In this episode, we’ll cover: Matthew Boulton and the Soho Manufactory; Arthur Guinness and the St. James’s Gate Brewery; Josiah Wedgwood and the Etruria Works; and the Portsmouth Block Mills – built by Marc Isambard Brunel, Henry Maudslay, and Samuel Bentham.