Incredibly entertaining, balanced, comprehensive

Any additional comments?

This was a spectacularly well-researched, comprehensive and entertaining look at what has arguably been most important driving force of modern history. Patrick Allitt beautifully balances this tour of the big picture forces and trends that drove massive societal change with the fascinating personal stories of many, many individuals who played pivotal roles in driving these changes in their respective societies (the focus is appropriately first on Great Britain and then shifts to the people and parallel developments in the U.S. and other parts of the world).

I listened to this course immediately after finishing another of The Great Courses called Big History (also very highly recommended). It was the perfect follow-up, as that title puts the human Industrial Revolution in perspective as the latest era in a 13 billion year trend of increasing complexity in our universe. But that's another course..

I have listened to 4 or 5 of Professor Allitt's courses from The Great Courses series and they are all uniformly excellent. He gifted both as a scholar and as a storyteller. Highly recommended. 5 Stars!

24 people found this helpful

The story of human progress through technology

In “The Industrial Revolution” lecture series Prof Patrick N. Allitt (professor of American History at Emory University) introduces the listener in 36 half hour lectures packed with information, to those technologies which - according to him - we all take for granted and never think about until it is lacking. Then we react with annoyance.

Ironically enough, while listening to this series, South Africa was forced into load shedding (the switching off of power grids for a certain amount of time) due to a coal silo that collapsed at one of the coal power plantations. This followed an event where Rand Water couldn’t provide water to great areas of the Gauteng Province because of some pump failures. I therefore can say, Prof Allitt’s argument hit home!

He also argues in this course that the early industrialists were seen as people with big fat purses who extorted the working labour class to live in luxury. While this might be the case in some instances the legacy of the Industrial Revolution are the upliftment of the living standard of the peasant population partaking in the project. He makes a striking statement in the beginning of the course that the kings of old were poorer than the peasants of today. The Industrial Revolution came up with the idea of continuous improvement.

If you want to know how and why things have changed so drastically over the last 250 years, this course seems a good place to start. While half of the lectures are focussed on the Industrial Revolution as it began and progress in 18th century Britain, the rest of the lectures are split up in the Industrialisation of the United States of America, Europe, Russia, Japan, India, Taiwan and China. I thought Prof Allitt’s focus on technology and how it impacted on who won the Second World War was very informative and interesting.

I was amazed that he thought of Sub-Saharan Africa as backwards and not yet there (my words). I am not completely convinced that he knows what is happening in Africa. Maybe his statement is too sweeping.

I was intrigued by the idea that different political systems saw the need for industrialisation, though it failed miserably if the state was too authoritarian. Though not mentioned by him, it seems to me that Apartheid in South Africa also had industrialisation as its driving force - another odd marriage partner of the Industrial Revolution.

With his British accent and all, Prof Allitt is an excellent presenter and has compiled a very informative, thought-provoking course. Generally he seems to be neutral in his presentation and comes to an appreciation of the progress of humanity through industrialisation. (One thing that bothered me, was when he talked about the Protestant groupings as sects. I wonder if he is Anglican or Roman Catholic?)

In general this is an excellent well-prepared and researched course that covers a vast array of subjects relating to the Industrial Revolution (as Fredrik Engels dubbed it). Any listener will be challenged by the amount of information that needs to be thought through. I can almost guarantee that it will help you to orientate yourself in terms of your own biases and blind spots towards technology and progress.

26 people found this helpful

Patrick Allitt doesn't disappoint!

What made the experience of listening to The Industrial Revolution the most enjoyable?

The focus on individuals is great, and something you can find throughout Patrick Allitts Great Courses recordings.

What did you like best about this story?

Learning about Isambard Kingdom Brunel. A fantastic engineer with great stories centered around him.

What does Professor Patrick N. Allitt bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He has a very pleasant and classroom-like way of speaking, something I very much enjoy. It's sometimes obvious that he reads from a script, but most of the time it's just like being told the story straight from the experts mind, and that adds a layer of social interaction-feel to the learning experience that is essential for taking in what you're taught.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, it's best to split it up in 30 to 90 minute sessions to get the best out of the material. You need time to reflect upon what you've learned and connect it to what you already know.

Any additional comments?

I find Patrick Allitts courses to be very easy to follow. He often focuses on one individual at a time and this approach is really enjoyable.

8 people found this helpful

And Excellent Read for Broader Historical Context!

For anyone educating themselves in history, this book as a great source of historical context, and a wonderful illumination of the threads that connect the past with today.

Allitt could go a little too far into details, dates, and specifics at times, information that no one but real enthusiasts will easily remember, and my mind would start to wander. However, I thought I had, as I think most people do, a reasonable grasp of the industrial revolution, and this course enlightened me to quite a lot of new insights.

It was fascinating to hear the revolution split and contrasted by region, Britain versus the United States, and again versus India and China. What was also very insightful was the the course carried on much longer than I had anticipated, from wrought iron to microchips, drawing a continuity between two revolutions that I'd never considered. Attill does well in demonstrating the importance of certain tiny elements, like standardized threads on screws, to the workings of the whole industrial machine. The information was also quite holistic, illustrating many different factors from cultural attitudes in antiquity to geopolitics.

Allit is clearly an advocate of industrialization, and makes a number of provocative anthropologically based arguments, but does not flinch from the hardships and controversies.

All in all, while this course could occasionally stray into droning, I would recommend it. It taught me much about something I thought I knew, and definitely enriched and deepened my understanding of history and the world today.

13 people found this helpful

Conservative bias with no acknowledgement of such

The book is too conservatively focused and pollyannaish with respect to the industrial revolution for my taste. The author appears to have a blindly conservative bent; I could handle this better if he acknowledged his bias and explained other opinions before giving his; he just gives his opinions as fact. The author seeks to justify the industrial revolution in a way that feels unnecessary and distracting from the historical perspective. Specific items that I believe are wrong stick out in my mind: He said "Teddy Roosevelt never had to work a day in his life." Even if Roosevelt did inherit wealth, it seems to me that he worked hard every day, including to recover from near bankruptcy. I think many would classify Roosevelt's trust-busting as benefiting the American economy. Irritatingly, he implies that Westinghouse was the inventor of alternating current, and does not mention Tesla. He said that the reason that the US didn't sign the Kyoto accord in 97 is because India and China would not sign it. Of course if the US would have had the guts to do so, they could have brought those two countries in line. The US was much more powerful then in the world than now.

5 people found this helpful

Terrific detailed overview

What made the experience of listening to The Industrial Revolution the most enjoyable?

The author really puts the Industrial Revolution in a larger context that gives you both a wonderful sense of the age, and the social and economic forces that enabled the Industrial Revolution to take place first in the UK and later in the US.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Industrial Revolution?

I never fully understood how important the changes in land ownership and advances in agriculture were to bringing about the Industrial Revolution. Now I do.

Have you listened to any of Professor Patrick N. Allitt’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to his other courses but he is really fun to listen to!

Any additional comments?

If you liked Walter Issacson's The Innovators you'll like this too, I think.

5 people found this helpful

Fascinating and very well presented

This is the third course by Professor Allitt that I've listened to. The courses are very well organized and I find his lectures extremely engaging. He does a good job of presenting a balanced picture of both the good and bad, the admirable and the deplorable effects of the Industrial Revolution, although he does share his belief that the benefits vastly outweigh the costs (which I agreed with before and after listening to the course). I particularly like how he incorporates primary sources-- letters, newspaper articles or fiction of the time.

11 people found this helpful

Good overview from an industrialist supporter

Overall, the author provides a good overview of the Industrial Revolution and it's benefits to civilization. The stories about specific figures are excellent and his analysis of the overall effects are quite good. I would question, however, his dismissal of the importance of the New Deal after WWII and his cheer leading for free trade. He positions as fact benefits without giving equal time to harm caused by lax regulation and modern trade deals. He also provides absolutely false information about the consensus among the scientific community concerning global warming and the role industrialization has had and continues to have in this issue. So just realize that this is a Thatcherite / Reaganite talking and take his pronouncements on some issues with a large grain of salt.

8 people found this helpful

Great Edu-tainment. Thought-provoking series.

If you could sum up The Industrial Revolution in three words, what would they be?

Compelling. Relevant. Enlightening.

Compelling series that reveals the evolution of the industrial society. You can still see the outlines of this historic journey around us everyday. Very thought-provoking when you consider the information age transitions we are living through now. Not just historic data, but a story of the evolution of our societies.

At first, the heavily accented delivery was a distraction, but it grew on me quickly. I actually came to like it very much.

I was sad to reach the end of this series. Informative and entertaining.

3 people found this helpful

The Kind of Teacher We'd All Like to Have

Allitt does a great job of giving the essence of the Industrial Revolution. He takes a broad swing from the mid 1700's to the present. The first half of the course concentrates on England, but you'll get a good overview of Germany, Asia, and , in particular, the US. America's contributions of unceasing innovation and the assembly line are given full coverage as well as its contribution to 20th-century wars.
This is a very worthwhile learning experience.

5 people found this helpful