11-18-2023, 01:41 PM
Sorry if you were hoping for military sci-fi or something. This is about the Luddites. The subtitle tells it all but was a bit long for the subject: The Origins of the Rebellion against Big Tech. The subtitle is extremely important because there are direct parallels between their struggle and the more recent struggles against tech firms.
First of all, it's quite good, although perhaps a bit long. I didn't quite reach the end because it was due back at the library and I couldn't renew it. He uses and quotes a lot of primary sources and follows a number of characters through the uprising. It was not at all what our popular notions make it out to be. Basically there were many established jobs in the textile trade, and weavers in particular could set their own hours and work at home. (Incidentally, the rise of automated thread-spinning machinery had put women working from home out of work a few decades earlier.) Automation would eliminate most of these jobs, and allow factory owners to use unskilled hands to do the work - often children from the workhouse, who worked for no pay, only room and board, both usually terrible. There were laws in place against using machinery to replace jobs, some of which went back to the Middle Ages, so the textile workers tried petitioning Parliament. But the owners claimed (much like Uber) that the old laws didn't apply to them or that they could disregard them because they had never been enforced etc. Parliament sided with the owners, mostly without even considering the case of the workers. Many lost work and began to starve, and so rose up to destroy the machines. Note that the textiles (mostly stockings) produced by the machines were markedly inferior to the work that they did - much like much of what passes for news coverage nowadays is inferior to a good newspaper. The amazing thing is that the uprising went on for a long time, and despite rewards, their neighbors were not willing to rat out the Luddites. The crown wound up sending a huge amount of soldiers to the midlands, which is no doubt why there are soldiers in the town in Pride and Prejudice, since it takes place at this time.
Well drawn parallels with recent adoption of tech, particularly Uber, where the taxi drivers' struggle very closely parallels that of the Luddites. The author also points out how those adopting the new technologies act as if they are not consciously making a decision to do so, but are being dragged along by progress.
If you're interested in the subject, I recommend it, despite it's length. I have not read Kirkpatrick Sale's book on the topic, so I can't compare.
First of all, it's quite good, although perhaps a bit long. I didn't quite reach the end because it was due back at the library and I couldn't renew it. He uses and quotes a lot of primary sources and follows a number of characters through the uprising. It was not at all what our popular notions make it out to be. Basically there were many established jobs in the textile trade, and weavers in particular could set their own hours and work at home. (Incidentally, the rise of automated thread-spinning machinery had put women working from home out of work a few decades earlier.) Automation would eliminate most of these jobs, and allow factory owners to use unskilled hands to do the work - often children from the workhouse, who worked for no pay, only room and board, both usually terrible. There were laws in place against using machinery to replace jobs, some of which went back to the Middle Ages, so the textile workers tried petitioning Parliament. But the owners claimed (much like Uber) that the old laws didn't apply to them or that they could disregard them because they had never been enforced etc. Parliament sided with the owners, mostly without even considering the case of the workers. Many lost work and began to starve, and so rose up to destroy the machines. Note that the textiles (mostly stockings) produced by the machines were markedly inferior to the work that they did - much like much of what passes for news coverage nowadays is inferior to a good newspaper. The amazing thing is that the uprising went on for a long time, and despite rewards, their neighbors were not willing to rat out the Luddites. The crown wound up sending a huge amount of soldiers to the midlands, which is no doubt why there are soldiers in the town in Pride and Prejudice, since it takes place at this time.
Well drawn parallels with recent adoption of tech, particularly Uber, where the taxi drivers' struggle very closely parallels that of the Luddites. The author also points out how those adopting the new technologies act as if they are not consciously making a decision to do so, but are being dragged along by progress.
If you're interested in the subject, I recommend it, despite it's length. I have not read Kirkpatrick Sale's book on the topic, so I can't compare.
the hands that guide me are invisible
