The Industrial Revolutions

Dave Broker•industrialrevolutionspod.com

The story of how a primate species created a world full of skyscrapers, airplanes, nuclear weapons, and vaccines. From the mass production of cotton weaving in the first industrial revolution of the 18th Century, to the digital revolution of today, this podcast will explore the ways our world has rapidly changed.

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Episodes

Chapter 12: The Steamboat

Creating the world’s first vessels of powered transportation was no joke. Several competitive inventors put everything on the line to be the first to build profitable steamboats. For most of them, the pursuit ended in failure. It was the most unlikely one – an American painter – who got the job done, and in the process, changed the course of world history.In this episode we’ll cover Denis Papin’s destroyed steamboat, the Marque de Jouffroy d'Abbans and his Pyroscaphe, William Symington and his C...

Apr 26, 2019•34 min

Chapter 11: Canal-Mania

From the 1760s to the 1830s, Great Britain went crazy for canals. America did too. These waterways helped speed up trade and fuel industrialization in the age before trains and highways. In the process, they created all kinds of new jobs and opportunities.Characters covered in this chapter include: Thomas Steers, the engineer who modernized river navigation in Lancashire; The Duke of Bridgewater, who built Britain’s first modern canal; James Brindley, who engineered the Bridgewater Canal and the...

Apr 12, 2019•32 min

Chapter 10: Economic Ideas (Part 2: Adam Smith)

This week we discuss the life and times of the Father of Economics, including his native Scotland, his early years and education, his intellectual influences, his career, and his magnum opus: The Wealth of Nations.

Apr 05, 2019•33 min

Chapter 9: Economic Ideas (Part 1: The Oldies)

At the dawn of the First Industrial Revolution, a new academic field emerged: Economics. (Well, something called “Political Economy” anyway.) But centuries of economic thought had to be supplanted first.In this Chapter, we review some of the ideas that permeated Europe leading up to the Industrial Revolutions. We’ll discuss the works of Plato and Aristotle, the Scholastics, the Mercantilists, Quesnay and the Physiocrats, Galiani, Beccaria, Verri, and of course, Thomas Robert Malthus.

Mar 29, 2019•29 min

Chapter 8: Mill Towns Become Mill Cities

Nearly half the world’s population today lives in an urban area. Before the first Industrial Revolution, only about 3% did. Industrialization created urbanization. Not only did it create incentives for people to pack themselves into dense cities, it also created the means to overcome the challenges of density. What’s most amazing about this process is that many new metropolises were seemingly created from thin air. Some old cities did become big cities and some old big cities did become megaciti...

Mar 22, 2019•26 min

Chapter 7: The Steam Engine

The steam engine was the product of centuries of experimentation, economic necessities, strong business acumen, and colorful personalities. This is how it happened.

Mar 15, 2019•43 min

Chapter 6: Agriculture, Metal, and Mining

During the 18th Century, the British came up with many innovations that allowed them to get more out of the land. Not only did the increased production of food, iron, and coal make the first industrial revolution possible, but many innovations had indirect applications for new technologies.In this episode, we’ll cover: Jethro Tull’s seed drill; Turnip Townshend’s crop rotations; The resistance of agricultural laborers; Abraham Darby’s coke smelting process; Henry Cort’s puddling process; The leg...

Mar 08, 2019•43 min

Chapter 5: The Textile Industry

We’ll never know the names of the first farmers of the Neolithic Revolution, but we do know the names of the inventors who kick-started the Industrial Revolutions. Their simple innovations gave us a new world of nearly constant, explosive economic growth and a total restructuring of society everywhere and forever. This is how it happened. In this episode, we’ll cover: The growth of the global cotton trade in the 17th and 18th centuries; The flying shuttle; The spinning jenny; The water-frame; Th...

Feb 22, 2019•38 min

Chapter 4: Creating Utopia

Are we living in Thomas More’s Utopia? In this chapter, we’ll explore his book and his life to chart the path toward the industrialized world we inhabit today, including: The rise of cottage industry; Mechanical innovations; Increasing specialization; The war industry’s impact on mass production; The impact of the Protestant Reformation.

Feb 15, 2019•36 min

Chapter 3: The Rise of the Global Empires

Beginning in the 1300s, a rivalry between two kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula led to a whole lot of exploring, trading, and conquering. Before long, other European powers were getting in on the action. Not only did it transfer the gravity of the world’s political and economic power toward Europe, it set Europe on a path toward industrialization. In this episode, we’ll explore: The early days of European naval exploration Portuguese trade in the East Spanish conquest in the West The mountain of...

Feb 08, 2019•42 min

Chapter 2: Europe in the Middle Ages

Europe was (rightly or wrongly) considered the backwater of the civilized world for most of history. So how is it the Europeans built global empires and changed the world with industrialization? In this 25-minute episode, I’m going to run through the developments of the Middle Ages and the circumstances of life in Europe that gradually led to a new world order. Topics include: The impact of Ancient Rome The Dark Ages The Crusades The Black Death Trade with the Islamic World The early days of mod...

Feb 01, 2019•29 min

Chapter 1: Genesis

In this episode, we cover the origins of human society, which remained relatively unchanged until the Industrial Revolutions: How we evolved into “smart man” How we stopped foraging and started farming How we started building cities How we developed trade and money How we developed government and religion How we invented writing How we developed a system of social inequality How our ideas spread out across the Eurasian landmass

Jan 31, 2019•40 min

Introduction

When the founding fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution in the 1780s, life on planet earth had changed very slowly over the previous 10,000 years. Life in 1780 wasn’t all that different from life in 1500. Life in 1500 wasn’t all that different from life in 1250. Life in 1250 wasn’t all that different from life in 1000. And so on, and so on.But then the human experience changed completely: Where we live, how long we live, when we work, when we sleep, how we go about our lives. It’s time we told tha...

Jan 07, 2019•4 min

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