And they’re right; the specter of Luddism remains with us to this day. It was at the beginning of the First Machine Age that textile workers in central and northern England rose up in rebellion, taking their name from the movement’s mythical leader Ned Ludd, who was supposed to have smashed two looms in a fit of rage in 1779. Because labor unions were outlawed, the Luddites opted for what the historian Eric Hobsbawm calls “negotiation by riot.”
