Victorian Technology: Invention, Innovation, and the Rise of the Machine

Victorian Life and Times

by Herbert L. Sussman

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

Victorian 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 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.

Genres: Science

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Amarah H-S]

This was very well done!! Sussman does a really good job discerning which details to include and which to leave out—a full account of Victorian tech could easily be hundreds of pages longer, but I think he makes great choices about what to highlight. I particularly enjoyed when Sussman engaged with representations of technology in literature (no one is surprised…).

This is obviously a little dry, unless you’re someone who gets really excited about cast iron and steam engines, but I knew what I was getting myself into. Overall, it’s a really well-executed and informative book, and I think Sussman does a good job providing a balanced perspective of technophobic vs technophilic Victorian attitudes.