A New Order of Things: How the Textile Industry Transformed New England

by Paul E. Rivard

For nearly two centuries, the New England economy revolved around coastal seaport towns, scattered farms, town centers, and a forest industry geared to turning tall trees into masts for His Majesty's Navy. The American Revolution eliminated the need for masts, but technologies imported from England for twisting cotton and woolen fibers into yarn initiated a major change in the newly-independent country's textile industry. Mills and factories replaced crops and trees, changing the people and landscape of New England forever.

Dramatic technological advances in textile production spurred revolutions in land use, commerce, transportation, business organization, and family life. Based on oral histories and archival documents, and enhanced by 100 illustrations from across New England, A New Order of Things offers an expansive, accessible overview of the rise and collapse of the industry that forced New England into the modern age.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

172 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2002

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book supposedly offers a “vast overview of the rise and collapse of an industry that forced New England into a modern age” (aka the industrialization of the textile industry and invention of modern capitalism) yet does not mention slavery ONCE. A book all about the cotton industry among other textiles in the 19th century conveniently forgot to address one of the most key aspects of its development. Also seems to take a very strange pro factory owner and child labor stance???

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can tell Mr Rivard is a museum curator, this book is structured like an exhibit catalogue. Lots of visuals and a 10,000 foot overview. But I still liked it because the New England textile industry employed two or three generations of my ancestors, between the mill work and the machine shops needed to support the mills, so I really want to know about this topic. For more details about the work of my great grandmother the woolen mill weaver, my grandfather the carding room foreman, or my uncle who worked at a loom company, I will have to look elsewhere. This was only an introduction.