Manufacturing Revolution - (Studies in Early American Economy and Society from the Libra) by Lawrence A Peskin (Paperback)

About the Book

Based upon extensive research in both manuscript and printed sources from the period between 1760 and 1830, this book will be of interest to historians of the early republic and economic historians as well as to students of technology, business, and industry.

Book Synopsis

"While much has been written about the industrial revolution," writes Lawrence Peskin, "we rarely read about industrial revolutionaries." This absence, he explains, reflects the preoccupation of both classical and Marxist economics with impersonal forces rather than with individuals. In Manufacturing Revolution Peskin deviates from both dominant paradigms by closely examining the words and deeds of individual Americans who made things in their own shops, who met in small groups to promote industrialization, and who, on the local level, strove for economic independence.

In speeches, petitions, books, newspaper articles, club meetings, and coffee-house conversations, they fervently discussed the need for large-scale American manufacturing a half-century before the Boston Associates built their first factory. Peskin shows how these economic pioneers launched a discourse that continued for decades, linking industrialization to the cause of independence and guiding the new nation along the path of economic ambition. Based upon extensive research in both manuscript and printed sources from the period between 1760 and 1830, this book will be of interest to historians of the early republic and economic historians as well as to students of technology, business, and industry.

Review Quotes

Manufacturing Revolution is an important work that greatly enhances understanding of the events that led to the Industrial Revolution, and scholars with interests ranging from the effects of the American Revolution to the economy of the early republic will profit much by reading it.

-- "Enterprise and Society"

A short review cannot do justice to everything that Peskin has crammed into a book that should prove of interest to business, cultural, economic, and social historians.

-- "Historian"

An exceptional study of the actors, events, and especially the ideas that laid the groundwork for industrialization in the early American republic.

-- "Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography"

Peskin argues that historians have focused too much attention on the process of the Industrial Revolution without properly considering the men who actually convinced the rest of society to go along for the ride.

-- "History: Reviews of New Books"

Peskin examines the intellectual foundations of economic growth in the early Republic.

-- "Choice"

This book offers strong support for interpreting the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as setting a solid foundation for American manufacturing. Peskin provides valuable documentation that this period witnessed ferment in the debate and promotion of manufacturing.

-- "EH.Net"

Well-structured and clearly written.

-- "History of Education Quarterly"

About the Author

Lawrence A. Peskin is an associate professor of history at Morgan State University.