Victorian Technology: Invention Innovation and the Rise of the Machine

by Herbert Sussman

Overview

An enlightening history of 19th-century technology, focusing on the connections between invention and cultural values.

Victorian Technology: Invention, Innovation, and the Rise of the Machine captures the extraordinary surge of energy and invention that catapulted 19th-century England into the position of the world's first industrialized nation. It was an astonishing transformation, one that shaped—and was shaped by—the values of the Victorian era, and that laid the groundwork for the consumer-based society in which we currently live.

Filled with vivid details and fascinating insights into the impact of the Industrial Revolution on peoples' lives, Victorian Technology locates the forerunners of the defining technologies of the our time in 19th-century England: the computer, the Internet, mass transit, and mass communication. Readers will encounter the innovative thinkers and entrepreneurs behind history-making breakthroughs in communications (the transatlantic cable, wireless communication), mass production (the integrated factory), transportation (railroads, gliders, automobiles), and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275991692
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/23/2009
Series:	Victorian Life and Times
Pages:	165
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Herbert Sussman is professor emeritus of English at Northeastern University, Boston, MA, and is currently an adjunct faculty member at The New School, New York, NY.

Editorial Reviews

Sussman has written a thought-provoking book. . . Recommended. Academic and public libraries, all levels.” —Choice

From the Publisher