Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World - Softcover

Joshua B. Freeman

 
9780393356625: Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World

Synopsis

"Freeman has written a superb account of how the material world in his phrase became "factory made"...The author's sympathy, insight and exemplary anecdotes make this a marvellous book." Ian Jack, Book of the Week, The Guardian

Factories, with their ingenious machinery and miraculous productivity, are celebrated as modern wonders of the world. Yet from William Blake's "dark Satanic mills" they have also fuelled our fears of the future.

Telling the story of the factory, Joshua B. Freeman takes readers from the textile mills in England that powered the Industrial Revolution to the steel and car plants of twentieth-century America, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, to today's behemoths making trainers, toys and iPhones in China and Vietnam. He traces arguments about factories and social progress through such critics and champions as Marx, Ford and Stalin. And he explores the representation of factories in the work of Margaret Bourke-White, Charlie Chaplin and Diego Rivera.

Short-listed for the Cundill History Prize, 2018

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Joshua B. Freeman is a Distinguished Professor of History at Queens College and the Graduate Center of CUNY. His previous books include American Empire and Working-Class New York, among others. He lives in New York City.

From the Back Cover

"Freeman has written a superb account of how the material world in his phrase became "factory made"...The author's sympathy, insight and exemplary anecdotes make this a marvellous book." Ian Jack, Book of the Week, The Guardian

Factories, with their ingenious machinery and miraculous productivity, are celebrated as modern wonders of the world. Yet from William Blake's "dark Satanic mills" they have also fuelled our fears of the future.

Telling the story of the factory, Joshua B. Freeman takes readers from the textile mills in England that powered the Industrial Revolution to the steel and car plants of twentieth-century America, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, to today's behemoths making trainers, toys and iPhones in China and Vietnam. He traces arguments about factories and social progress through such critics and champions as Marx, Ford and Stalin. And he explores the representation of factories in the work of Margaret Bourke-White, Charlie Chaplin and Diego Rivera.

Short-listed for the Cundill History Prize, 2018

From the Inside Flap

"Freeman has written a superb account of how the material world in his phrase became "factory made"...The author's sympathy, insight and exemplary anecdotes make this a marvellous book." Ian Jack, Book of the Week, The Guardian Factories, with their ingenious machinery and miraculous productivity, are celebrated as modern wonders of the world. Yet from William Blake's "dark Satanic mills" they have also fuelled our fears of the future. Telling the story of the factory, Joshua B. Freeman takes readers from the textile mills in England that powered the Industrial Revolution to the steel and car plants of twentieth-century America, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, to today's behemoths making trainers, toys and iPhones in China and Vietnam. He traces arguments about factories and social progress through such critics and champions as Marx, Ford and Stalin. And he explores the representation of factories in the work of Margaret Bourke-White, Charlie Chaplin and Diego Rivera. Short-listed for the Cundill History Prize, 2018

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780393246315: Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0393246310 ISBN 13:  9780393246315
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2018
Hardcover