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| writings of the luddites: Writings of the Luddites Kevin Binfield, 2004-06-14 An invaluable collection of texts written between 1811 and 1816 by members of the Luddite movement and their sympathizers. Named for their probably mythical leader, Ned Ludd, the Luddites were a group of social agitators in nineteenth-century Britain who tried to prevent the mechanization of cloth factories, which they blamed for increased unemployment, poverty, and hunger in industrial centers. Though famous for their often violent protests, the Luddites also engaged in literary resistance in the form of poems, proclamations, petitions, songs, and letters. In Writings of the Luddites, Kevin Binfield collects complete texts written by Luddites or Luddite sympathizers between 1811 and 1816, adds detailed notes, and organizes the documents by the three primary regions of origin: the Midlands, Northwestern England, and Yorkshire. Binfield’s extensive introduction provides a historical overview of the Luddites and their activities, explores their rhetorical strategies, and illuminates their literary context. Written for the most part from a collective point of view, the texts themselves range from judicious to bloodthirsty in tone and reveal a fascination both with legal forms of address and with the more personal forms of Romantic literature, as well as with the recent political revolutions in France and America. |
| writings of the luddites: Writings of the Luddites Kevin Binfield, 2015-06-30 An invaluable collection of texts written between 1811 and 1816 by members of the Luddite movement and their sympathizers. Named for their probably mythical leader, Ned Ludd, the Luddites were a group of social agitators in nineteenth-century Britain who tried to prevent the mechanization of cloth factories, which they blamed for increased unemployment, poverty, and hunger in industrial centers. Though famous for their often violent protests, the Luddites also engaged in literary resistance in the form of poems, proclamations, petitions, songs, and letters. In Writings of the Luddites, Kevin Binfield collects complete texts written by Luddites or Luddite sympathizers between 1811 and 1816, adds detailed notes, and organizes the documents by the three primary regions of origin: the Midlands, Northwestern England, and Yorkshire. Binfield’s extensive introduction provides a historical overview of the Luddites and their activities, explores their rhetorical strategies, and illuminates their literary context. Written for the most part from a collective point of view, the texts themselves range from judicious to bloodthirsty in tone and reveal a fascination both with legal forms of address and with the more personal forms of Romantic literature, as well as with the recent political revolutions in France and America. |
| writings of the luddites: Breaking Things at Work Gavin Mueller, 2021-02-09 An exhilarating challenge to the way we think about work, technology, progress, and what we want from the future In the 19th century, English textile workers responded to the introduction of new tecnologies on the factory floor by smashing them to bits. For years 'the Luddites' roamed the English countryside, practicing drills and maneuvers that they would later deploy on unassuming machines. The movement has been derided by scholars as a backwards-looking and ultimately ineffectual effort to stem the march of history; for Gavin Mueller, the movement gets at the heart of of the antagonistic relationship between workers - all workers, including us today - and the so-called progressive gains secured by new technologies. The luddites weren't primitive or even anachronistic - they are still a force, however unconsciously, in the workplaces of the 21st century world. Breaking Things at Work is an innovative rethinking of labor and machines, leaping from textile mills to algorithms, from existentially threatened knife cutters of rural Germany to surveillance evading truckers driving across the continental United States. Mueller argues that the future stability and empowerment of working class movements will depend on subverting these technologies and preventing their spread wherever possible. The task is high, but the seeds of this resistance are already present in the Neo-Luddite efforts of hackers, pirates, and dark web users who are challenging surveillance and control, often through older systems of communication technology. |
| writings of the luddites: Against Technology Steven E. Jones, 2006 This book addresses the question of what it might mean today to be a Luddite--that is, to take a stand against technology. Steven Jones here explains the history of the Luddites, British textile works who, from around 1811, proclaimed themselves followers of Ned Ludd and smashed machinery they saw as threatening their trade. Against Technology is not a history of the Luddites, but a history of an idea: how the activities of a group of British workers in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire came to stand for a global anti-technology philosophy, and how an anonymous collective movement came to be identified with an individualistic personal conviction. Angry textile workers in the early nineteenth century became romantic symbols of a desire for a simple life--certainly not the original goal of the actions for which they became famous. Against Technology is, in other words, a book about representations, about the image and the myth of the Luddites and how that myth was transformed over time into modern neo-Luddism. |
| writings of the luddites: Improper Names Marco Deseriis, 2015-10-01 Improper Names offers a genealogy and theory of the “improper name,” which author Marco Deseriis defines as the adoption of the same pseudonym by organized collectives, affinity groups, and individual authors. Although such names are often invented to pursue a specific social or political agenda, they are soon appropriated for different and sometimes diverging purposes. This book examines the tension arising from struggles for control of a pseudonym’s symbolic power. Deseriis provides five fascinating and widely varying case studies. Ned Ludd was the legendary and eponymous leader of the English Luddites, textile workers who threatened the destruction of industrial machinery and then advanced a variety of economic and political demands. Alan Smithee—an alias coined by Hollywood film directors in 1969 in order to disown films that were recut by producers—became a contested signature and was therefore no longer effective to signal prevarication to Hollywood insiders. Monty Cantsin was an “open pop star” created by U.S. and Canadian artists in the late 1970s to critique bourgeois notions of authorship, but its communal character was compromised by excessive identification with individual users of the name. The Italian media activists calling themselves Luther Blissett, aware of the Cantsin experience, implemented measures to prevent individuals from assuming the alias, which was used to author media pranks, sell apocryphal manuscripts to publishers, fabricate artists and artworks, and author best-selling novels. The longest chapter here is devoted to the contemporary “hacktivist” group known as Anonymous, which protests censorship and restricted access to information and information technologies. After delving into a rich philosophical debate on community among those who have nothing in common, the book concludes with a reflection on how the politics of improper names affects present-day anticapitalist social movements such as Occupy and 15-M. |
| writings of the luddites: Stop, Thief! Peter Linebaugh, 2014-03-01 In this majestic tour de force, celebrated historian Peter Linebaugh takes aim at the thieves of land, the polluters of the seas, the ravagers of the forests, the despoilers of rivers, and the removers of mountaintops. Scarcely a society has existed on the face of the earth that has not had commoning at its heart. “Neither the state nor the market,” say the planetary commoners. These essays kindle the embers of memory to ignite our future commons. From Thomas Paine to the Luddites, from Karl Marx—who concluded his great study of capitalism with the enclosure of commons—to the practical dreamer William Morris—who made communism into a verb and advocated communizing industry and agriculture—to the 20th-century communist historian E.P. Thompson, Linebaugh brings to life the vital commonist tradition. He traces the red thread from the great revolt of commoners in 1381 to the enclosures of Ireland, and the American commons, where European immigrants who had been expelled from their commons met the immense commons of the native peoples and the underground African-American urban commons. Illuminating these struggles in this indispensable collection, Linebaugh reignites the ancient cry, “STOP, THIEF!” |
| writings of the luddites: A Radical History Of Britain Edward Vallance, 2013-04-04 From medieval Runnymede to twentieth-century Jarrow, from King Alfred to George Orwell by way of John Lilburne and Mary Wollstonecraft, a rich and colourful thread of radicalism runs through a thousand years of British history. In this fascinating study, Edward Vallance traces a national tendency towards revolution, irreverence and reform wherever it surfaces and in all its variety. He unveils the British people who fought and died for religious freedom, universal suffrage, justice and liberty - and shows why, now more than ever, their heroic achievements must be celebrated. Beginning with Magna Carta, Vallance subjects the touchstones of British radicalism to rigorous scrutiny. He evokes the figureheads of radical action, real and mythic - Robin Hood and Captain Swing, Wat Tyler, Ned Ludd, Thomas Paine and Emmeline Pankhurst - and the popular movements that bore them. Lollards and Levellers, Diggers, Ranters and Chartists, each has its membership, principles and objectives revealed. |
| writings of the luddites: Math with Bad Drawings Ben Orlin, 2018-09-18 A hilarious reeducation in mathematics-full of joy, jokes, and stick figures-that sheds light on the countless practical and wonderful ways that math structures and shapes our world. In Math With Bad Drawings, Ben Orlin reveals to us what math actually is; its myriad uses, its strange symbols, and the wild leaps of logic and faith that define the usually impenetrable work of the mathematician. Truth and knowledge come in multiple forms: colorful drawings, encouraging jokes, and the stories and insights of an empathetic teacher who believes that math should belong to everyone. Orlin shows us how to think like a mathematician by teaching us a brand-new game of tic-tac-toe, how to understand an economic crises by rolling a pair of dice, and the mathematical headache that ensues when attempting to build a spherical Death Star. Every discussion in the book is illustrated with Orlin's trademark bad drawings, which convey his message and insights with perfect pitch and clarity. With 24 chapters covering topics from the electoral college to human genetics to the reasons not to trust statistics, Math with Bad Drawings is a life-changing book for the math-estranged and math-enamored alike. |
| writings of the luddites: Ben o' Bill's, the Luddite: A Yorkshire Tale D. F. E. Sykes, George Henry Walker, 2022-06-02 D. F. E. Sykes' 'Ben o' Bill's, the Luddite: A Yorkshire Tale' is a hauntingly vivid portrayal of early 19th-century England, engulfed in the throes of the Industrial Revolution. First appearing in 1898, this work distinguished itself from its contemporaries through its compelling use of the Yorkshire dialect and a profound empathy in its character depictions. At its core, the novel is a meticulous social history that captures the plight of disenfranchised handloom weavers faced with the advent of industrial mechanization. Sykes delivers a narrative steeped in the authenticity of local culture and traditions, unraveling the complexities faced by the Luddites, who are often much misunderstood as mere antagonists of progress. The literary style is evocative and genuine, resonating the era's socio-political tensions alongside a richly textured backdrop of the Colne Valley during its period of labor unrest. Sykes, who alongside G. H. Walker originally lent his pen to this work, imbues his prose with a reflective understanding born of his deep familiarity with Yorkshire and its intricate social fabric. In 'Ben o' Bill's, the Luddite', Sykes' scholarly knowledge complements his narrative technique, merging a historian's precision with a storyteller's emotion. This fusion not only signifies the groundbreaking methodologies in documenting social histories at the time but also reflects an impassioned perspective intending to humanize the Luddites, their struggles, and their noble, if futile, fight against the unchecked forces of industrialism and oppressive government policies. Readers seeking an insightful glimpse into the textile industry's turbulent transformation and the human cost of rapid technological change will find 'Ben o' Bill's, the Luddite: A Yorkshire Tale' to be of significant interest. Those invested in labor history, linguistics, or societal conflict dynamics will garner substantial merit from Sykes' meticulous research and rich narrative. Furthermore, admirers of regional literature and dialect will be invariably intrigued by the linguistic authenticity that Sykes presents. An essential read, the book stands out as a testament to the necessity of understanding the past to comprehend the socioeconomic struggles that resonate even in contemporary society. |
| writings of the luddites: The Northern Question Tom Hazeldine, 2021-09-21 A history of the UK’s regional inequalities, and why they matter Differences between England’s North and South continue to shape national politics, from attitudes to Brexit and the electoral collapse of Labour’s ‘Red Wall’ to Whitehall’s experimentation with regional pandemic lockdowns. Why is this fault line such a persistent feature of the English landscape? The Northern Question is a history of England seen in the unfamiliar light of a northern perspective. While London is the capital and the centre for trade and finance, the proclaimed leader of the nation, northern England has always seemed like a different country. In the nineteenth century its industrializing society appeared set to bring a political revolution down upon Westminster and the City. Tom Hazeldine recounts how subsequent governments put finance before manufacturing, London ahead of the regions, and austerity before reconstruction. |
| writings of the luddites: The Risings of the Luddites, Chartists and Plug-drawers Frank Peel, 1895 |
| writings of the luddites: The risings of the Luddites Frank Peel, 1880 |
| writings of the luddites: Marx, Dead and Alive Andy Merrifield, 2020-11-30 A contemporary interrogation of Marx’s masterwork Karl Marx saw the ruling class as a sorcerer, no longer able to control the ominous powers it has summoned from the netherworld. Today, in an age spawning the likes of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, our society has never before been governed by so many conjuring tricks, with collusions and conspiracies, fake news and endless sleights of the economic and political hand. And yet, contends Andy Merrifield, as our modern lives become ever more mist-enveloped, the works of Marx can help us penetrate the fog. In Marx, Dead and Alive—a book that begins and ends beside Marx’s recently violated London graveside—Merrifield makes a spirited case for a critical thinker who can still offer people a route toward personal and social authenticity. Bolstering his argument with fascinating examples of literature and history, from Shakespeare and Beckett, to the Luddites and the Black Panthers, Merrifield demonstrates how Marx can reveal our individual lives to us within a collective perspective—and within a historical continuum. Who we are now hinges on who we once were—and who we might become. This, at a time when our value-system is undergoing core “post-truth” meltdown. |
| writings of the luddites: Living with the Genie Alan Lightman, Daniel Sarewitz, Christina Desser, 2013-03-05 At a time when scientific and technological breakthroughs keep our eyes focused on the latest software upgrades or the newest cell-phone wizardry, a group of today's most innovative thinkers are looking beyond the horizon to explore both the promise and the peril of our technological future. Human ingenuity has granted us a world of unprecedented personal power -- enabling us to communicate instantaneously with anyone anywhere on the globe, to transport ourselves in both real and virtual worlds to distant places with ease, to fill our bellies with engineered commodities once available to only a privileged elite. Through our technologies, we have sought to free ourselves from the shackles of nature and become its master. Yet science and technology continually transform our experience and society in ways that often seem to be beyond our control. Today, different areas of research and innovation are advancing synergistically, multiplying the rate and magnitude of technological and societal change, with consequences that no one can predict. Living with the Genie explores the origins, nature, and meaning of such change, and our capacity to govern it. As the power of technology continues to accelerate, who, this book asks, will be the master of whom? In Living with the Genie, leading writers and thinkers come together to confront this question from many perspectives, including: Richard Powers's whimsical investigation of the limits of artificial intelligence; Philip Kitcher's confrontation of the moral implications of science; Richard Rhodes's exploration of the role of technology in reducing violence; Shiv Visvanathan's analysis of technology's genocidal potential; Lori Andrews's insights into the quest for human genetic enhancement; Alan Lightman's reflections on how technology changes the experience of our humanness. These and ten other provocative essays open the door to a new dialogue on how, in the quest for human mastery, technology may be changing what it means to be human, in ways we scarcely comprehend. |
| writings of the luddites: The Language of Inequality in the News Michael Toolan, 2018-12-06 Explores how UK wealth inequality is discussed in newspapers, with a particular focus on changes over the past forty-five years. |
| writings of the luddites: Under the Canopy of Heaven Georgina Hutchison, 2018-05-25 Those men don't make cloth; they make money.So says George Mellor's stepfather of the rich manufacturers swelling their beloved textile town and sucking the life from the cloth dressing shops.As the stranglehold of the profiteers tightens, how far will Mellor go to save the way of life he loves? And what price will the young cropper - and those he cares for - be forced to pay?A haunting and evocative account of Huddersfield's Luddite rebellion of 1812, from the author of Cartimandua and Daughters Of Lac. |
| writings of the luddites: Handbook of Research on Writing Charles Bazerman, 2009-03-04 The Handbook of Research on Writing ventures to sum up inquiry over the last few decades on what we know about writing and the many ways we know it: How do people write? How do they learn to write and develop as writers? Under what conditions and for what purposes do people write? What resources and technologies do we use to write? How did our current forms and practices of writing emerge within social history? What impacts has writing had on society and the individual? What does it mean to be and to learn to be an active participant in contemporary systems of meaning? This cornerstone volume advances the field by aggregating the broad-ranging, interdisciplinary, multidimensional strands of writing research and bringing them together into a common intellectual space. Endeavoring to synthesize what has been learned about writing in all nations in recent decades, it reflects a wide scope of international research activity, with attention to writing at all levels of schooling and in all life situations. Chapter authors, all eminent researchers, come from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, archeology, typography, communication studies, linguistics, journalism, sociology, rhetoric, composition, law, medicine, education, history, and literacy studies. The Handbook’s 37 chapters are organized in five sections: *The History of Writing; *Writing in Society; *Writing in Schooling; *Writing and the Individual; *Writing as Text This volume, in summing up what is known about writing, deepens our experience and appreciation of writing—in ways that will make teachers better at teaching writing and all of its readers better as individual writers. It will be interesting and useful to scholars and researchers of writing, to anyone who teaches writing in any context at any level, and to all those who are just curious about writing. |
| writings of the luddites: The Two Cultures C. P. Snow, 1993-07-30 The notion that our society, its education system and its intellectual life, is characterised by a split between two cultures - the arts or humanities on one hand, and the sciences on the other - has a long history. But it was C. P. Snow's Rede lecture of 1959 that brought it to prominence and began a public debate that is still raging in the media today. This 50th anniversary printing of The Two Cultures and its successor piece, A Second Look (in which Snow responded to the controversy four years later) features an introduction by Stefan Collini, charting the history and context of the debate, its implications and its afterlife. The importance of science and technology in policy run largely by non-scientists, the future for education and research, and the problem of fragmentation threatening hopes for a common culture are just some of the subjects discussed. |
| writings of the luddites: Bloody Romanticism I. Haywood, 2006-10-26 This book studies the impact of violence on the writing of the Romantic period. The focus is on the response of writers to a series of violent events including the revolutions in America and France and the Irish rebellion of 1798. Authors covered include Coleridge, Wordsworth, Scott, Byron, Fennimore Cooper, Equiano, and Helen Maria Williams. |
| writings of the luddites: Dark Future Glenn Beck, 2023-07-11 In Dark Future: Uncovering the Great Reset's Terrifying Next Phase, New York Times bestselling authors Glenn Beck and Justin Haskins reveal the most important technologies and social and cultural changes that will soon cause an unprecedented level of disruption in the United States, as well as in countless other nations. They also outline the dangers and opportunities associated with these disruptions and provide a plan to protect individuals and families from losing their liberty. --Amazon. |
| writings of the luddites: Philip K. Dick and Philosophy D. E. Wittkower, 2011 Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) is the giant imagination behind so much recent popular culture--both movies directly based on his writings, such as Blade Runner (based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and The Adjustment Bureau plus cult favorites such as A Scanner Darkly, Imposter, Next, Screamers, and Paycheck and works revealing his powerful influence, such as The Matrix and Inception. With the much anticipated forthcoming publication in 2011 of volume 1 of Exegesis, his journal of spiritual visions and paranoic investigations, Dick is fast becoming a major influence in the world of popular spirituality and occult thinking. In Philip K. Dick and Philosophy: Who Adjusts the Adjustment Bureau?, twenty Dick fans and professional thinkers confront the fascinating and frightening ideas raised by Dick's mind-blowing fantasies. Is there an alien world behind the everyday reality we experience? If androids can pass as human, should they be given the same consideration as humans? Do psychotics have insights into a mystical reality? Would knowledge of the future free us or enslave us? This volume will also include Dick's short story Adjustment Team, on which The Adjustment Bureau is based. Philip K. Dick and Philosophy explores the ideas of Philip K. Dick in the same way that he did: with an earnest desire to understand the truth of the world, but without falsely equating earnestness with a dry seriousness. Dick's work was replete with whimsical and absurdist presentations of the greatest challenges to reason and to humanity--paradox, futility, paranoia, and failure--and even at his darkest times he was able to keep some perspective and humor, as for example in choosing to name himself 'Horselover Fat' in VALIS at the same time as he relates his personal religious epiphanies, crises, and delusions. With the same earnest whimsy, we approach Philip K. Dick as a philosopher like ourselves--one who wrote almost entirely in thought-experiments and semi-fictional world-building, but who engaged with many of the greatest questions of philosophy throughout the Euro-American tradition. Philip K. Dick and Philosophy has much to offer for both serious fans who have read many of his novels and stories, and for those who may have just recently learned his name, and realized that his work has been the inspiration for several well-known and thought-provoking films. Most chapters start with one or more of the movies based on Dick's writing. From here, the authors delve deeper into the issues by bringing in philosophers' perspectives and by bringing in Dick's written work. The book invites the reader with a casual familiarity with Dick to get to know his work, and invites the reader with little familiarity with philosophy to learn more. At the same time, we have new perspectives and challenging connections and interpretations for even the most hard-core Dick fans, even though we never speak to insiders only. To maximize public interest, the book prominently addresses the most widely-known films, as well as those with the most significant fan followings: Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Adjustment Bureau. Along with these big five films, a few chapters address his last novels, especially VALIS, which have a significant cult following of their own. There are also chapters which address short stories and novels which are currently planned for adaptation: Radio Free Albemuth (film completed, awaiting distribution), The Man in the High Castle (in development by Ridley Scott for BBC mini-series), and King of the Elves (Disney, planned for release in 2012). |
| writings of the luddites: Straight Razor Harold Jaffe, 1995 Time: 20 minutes into the future Setting: The treacherous margins of post-industrial society Cast: Sexual outlaws, serial murderers, techno-freaks, gender benders, rogue cops, punk anarchists Content: Horror, outrage, razor-sharp satire, virtuosic writing and visual beauty by two of the most original contemporary American artists, in collaboration In this uncanny collection of 12 stories, Harold Jaffe-author of Eros Anti-Eros, Beasts, and Madonna & Other Spectacles and Norman Conquest, artist illustrator extraordinaire, have produced a book with the precision of a laser and the charge of a land mine. |
| writings of the luddites: The Risings of the Luddites, Chartists and Plug-drawers Frank Peel, 1895 |
| writings of the luddites: The Best Writing on Mathematics 2010 Mircea Pitici, 2021-09-14 The year’s most memorable writing on mathematics This anthology brings together the year's finest writing on mathematics from around the world. Featuring promising new voices alongside some of the foremost names in mathematics, The Best Writing on Mathematics makes available to a wide audience many articles not easily found anywhere else—and you don't need to be a mathematician to enjoy them. These writings offer surprising insights into the nature, meaning, and practice of mathematics today. They delve into the history, philosophy, teaching, and everyday occurrences of math, and take readers behind the scenes of today's hottest mathematical debates. Here readers will discover why Freeman Dyson thinks some mathematicians are birds while others are frogs; why Keith Devlin believes there's more to mathematics than proof; what Nick Paumgarten has to say about the timing patterns of New York City's traffic lights (and why jaywalking is the most mathematically efficient way to cross Sixty-sixth Street); what Samuel Arbesman can tell us about the epidemiology of the undead in zombie flicks; and much, much more. In addition to presenting the year's most memorable writing on mathematics, this must-have anthology also includes a foreword by esteemed mathematician William Thurston and an informative introduction by Mircea Pitici. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in where math has taken us—and where it's headed. |
| writings of the luddites: A Little History of the World E. H. Gombrich, 2008-10-07 E. H. Gombrich’s bestselling history of the world for young readers tells the story of mankind from the Stone Age to the atomic bomb, focusing not on small detail but on the sweep of human experience, the extent of human achievement, and the depth of its frailty. The product of a generous and humane sensibility, this timeless account makes intelligible the full span of human history. In forty concise chapters, Gombrich tells the story of man from the stone age to the atomic bomb. In between emerges a colorful picture of wars and conquests, grand works of art, and the spread and limitations of science. This is a text dominated not by dates and facts, but by the sweep of mankind’s experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity’s achievements and an acute witness to its frailties. |
| writings of the luddites: Happiness, Technology and Innovation Gaël Brulé, Francis Munier, 2021-08-27 This book asks what kind of impacts innovations and technology have on subjective well-being and happiness. It presents the state of the art both in terms of results and theoretical questioning on these topics. It proposes a new concept: innovation that leads to greater happiness, and highlights new research in this area. In so doing, it addresses a less researched area in the field of well-being research. The authors state that notwithstanding the indisputable positive contributions of innovation and technology, there are also drawbacks, which need equal attention in research. This book is of interest to students and researchers of quality of life and well-being, as well as innovation research. |
| writings of the luddites: The Narrow Corridor Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson, 2019-09-24 From the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize for Economics and the authors of the international bestseller Why Nations Fail Why is it so difficult to develop and sustain liberal democracy? The best recent work on this subject comes from a remarkable pair of scholars, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. In their latest book, The Narrow Corridor, they have answered this question with great insight. —Fareed Zakaria, The Washington Post In Why Nations Fail, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson argued that countries rise and fall based not on culture, geography, or chance, but on the power of their institutions. In their new book, they build a new theory about liberty and how to achieve it, drawing a wealth of evidence from both current affairs and disparate threads of world history. Liberty is hardly the natural order of things. In most places and at most times, the strong have dominated the weak and human freedom has been quashed by force or by customs and norms. Either states have been too weak to protect individuals from these threats, or states have been too strong for people to protect themselves from despotism. Liberty emerges only when a delicate and precarious balance is struck between state and society. There is a Western myth that political liberty is a durable construct, arrived at by a process of enlightenment. This static view is a fantasy, the authors argue. In reality, the corridor to liberty is narrow and stays open only via a fundamental and incessant struggle between state and society: The authors look to the American Civil Rights Movement, Europe’s early and recent history, the Zapotec civilization circa 500 BCE, and Lagos’s efforts to uproot corruption and institute government accountability to illustrate what it takes to get and stay in the corridor. But they also examine Chinese imperial history, colonialism in the Pacific, India’s caste system, Saudi Arabia’s suffocating cage of norms, and the “Paper Leviathan” of many Latin American and African nations to show how countries can drift away from it, and explain the feedback loops that make liberty harder to achieve. Today we are in the midst of a time of wrenching destabilization. We need liberty more than ever, and yet the corridor to liberty is becoming narrower and more treacherous. The danger on the horizon is not just the loss of our political freedom, however grim that is in itself; it is also the disintegration of the prosperity and safety that critically depend on liberty. The opposite of the corridor of liberty is the road to ruin. |
| writings of the luddites: Erotic Coleridge A. Taylor, 2005-12-09 Erotic Coleridge charts Coleridge's prolific creation of love poems from early flirtatious verse to poems about marital incompatibility, the blank faces of young women fearing for their reputations, the obliterating seductions of young women, the exaltation of falling in love, the spoken and sung voices of women, the pain of jealousy, and late meditations on how to live with the waning of love. In his prose he responds to Parliamentary debates about punishing adulteresses and gives advice about how marriage can warp the soul. In his sensual exuberance and his ethics of reverencing the individuality of other persons, Coleridge attends closely to the lives of women. |
| writings of the luddites: A Very British Murder Lucy Worsley, 2014-05-08 This is the story of a national obsession. Ever since the Ratcliffe Highway Murders caused a nation-wide panic in Regency England, the British have taken an almost ghoulish pleasure in 'a good murder'. This fascination helped create a whole new world of entertainment, inspiring novels, plays and films, puppet shows, paintings and true-crime journalism - as well as an army of fictional detectives who still enthrall us today. A Very British Murder is Lucy Worsley's captivating account of this curious national obsession. It is a tale of dark deeds and guilty pleasures, a riveting investigation into the British soul by one of our finest historians. |
| writings of the luddites: The Need for Roots Simone Weil, 2020-04-30 Weil was a popular and influential religious thinker Features an introduction by T.S. Eliot Her most famous and most powerful book |
| writings of the luddites: An Everyday Life of the English Working Class Carolyn Steedman, 2013-12-05 Unique and fascinating account of English working-class life at the turn of the nineteenth century by celebrated historian Carolyn Steedman. |
| writings of the luddites: The Industrial Novels Mehmet Akif Balkaya, Christian Kersten Hofbauer, Elham Madadi Kandjani, 2015-11-25 This book provides a clear historical and theoretical framework for reading three important novels published in Britain in the second half of the nineteenth century. Examining the novels by Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell, the book offers an analysis of their strategies for radical reforms and for the restructuring of society and politics through improvements in the living and working conditions of the working class. The Industrial Novels begins with an introduction of the Industrial Revolution, which is then followed by chapters devoted to a detailed discussion of each novel. Through this, the book explores the negative social, political and economic effects of industrialization and urbanization, as reflected in Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley (1849), Charles Dickens’ Hard Times (1854), and Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South (1855). As such, the book will be of interest to academics and students in the fields of both literature and sociology. |
| writings of the luddites: Innovation and Its Enemies Calestous Juma, 2016-06-06 It is a curious situation that technologies we now take for granted have, when first introduced, so often stoked public controversy and concern for public welfare. At the root of this tension is the perception that the benefits of new technologies will accrue only to small sections of society, while the risks will be more widely distributed. Drawing from nearly 600 years of technology history, Calestous Juma identifies the tension between the need for innovation and the pressure to maintain continuity, social order, and stability as one of today's biggest policy challenges. He reveals the extent to which modern technological controversies grow out of distrust in public and private institutions and shows how new technologies emerge, take root, and create new institutional ecologies that favor their establishment in the marketplace. Innovation and Its Enemies calls upon public leaders to work with scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to manage technological change and expand public engagement on scientific and technological matters. |
| writings of the luddites: Post-Jungians Today Ann Casement, 1998 Post-Jungians Today reflects the social, cultural & professional differences that exist in the Jungian community worldwide. For anyone interested in the influence of Jungian thought in today's world, this is essential reading. |
| writings of the luddites: The Difference Engine William Gibson, 2011-07-26 1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. And three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with history—and the future: Sybil Gerard—a fallen woman, politician’s tart, daughter of a Luddite agitator Edward “Leviathan” Mallory—explorer and paleontologist Laurence Oliphant—diplomat, mystic, and spy. Their adventure begins with the discovery of a box of punched Engine cards of unknown origin and purpose. Cards someone wants badly enough to kill for…. Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine is the collaborative masterpiece by two of the most acclaimed science fiction authors writing today. Provocative, compelling, intensely imagined, it is a startling extension of Gibson’s and Sterling’s unique visions—and the beginning of movement we know today as “steampunk!” |
| writings of the luddites: Uncommon People Eric Hobsbawm, 2011-05-12 A fascinating collection of essays concerning working men and women. These 26 essays range over the history of working men and women between the late 18th century and the present day. They include Hobsbawm's pioneering studies in labour history and social protest - the formation of the British working class, labour custom and traditions, the political radicalism of 19th century shoemakers, male and female images in revolutionary movements, the machine-breakers, revolution and sex, peasants and politics, the rules of violence, the common-sense of Tom Paine. There are more recent reflections: on the May Day holiday; the Vietnam War; socialism and the avantgarde; Mario Puzo, the Mafia and the Sicilian bandit Salvatore Guiliano; and the cultural consequences of Christopher Columbus. There are tributes to some of jazz's legendary figures - Count Basie, Sidney Bechet and Dike Ellington - anf the tragic blues-singer Billie Holiday. |
| writings of the luddites: A Maimonides Reader Moses Maimonides, 1972 Major selections from Maimonides' writings, including Guide to the Perplexed, Mishneh Torah, his essays, correspondence, and commentaries. The definitive one-volume English presentation. This book will provide a deeper understanding of Maimonides with translations of the original text. |
| writings of the luddites: The Artist in the Machine Arthur I. Miller, 2020-11-10 An authority on creativity introduces us to AI-powered computers that are creating art, literature, and music that may well surpass the creations of humans. Today's computers are composing music that sounds “more Bach than Bach,” turning photographs into paintings in the style of Van Gogh's Starry Night, and even writing screenplays. But are computers truly creative—or are they merely tools to be used by musicians, artists, and writers? In this book, Arthur I. Miller takes us on a tour of creativity in the age of machines. Miller, an authority on creativity, identifies the key factors essential to the creative process, from “the need for introspection” to “the ability to discover the key problem.” He talks to people on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence, encountering computers that mimic the brain and machines that have defeated champions in chess, Jeopardy!, and Go. In the central part of the book, Miller explores the riches of computer-created art, introducing us to artists and computer scientists who have, among much else, unleashed an artificial neural network to create a nightmarish, multi-eyed dog-cat; taught AI to imagine; developed a robot that paints; created algorithms for poetry; and produced the world's first computer-composed musical, Beyond the Fence, staged by Android Lloyd Webber and friends. But, Miller writes, in order to be truly creative, machines will need to step into the world. He probes the nature of consciousness and speaks to researchers trying to develop emotions and consciousness in computers. Miller argues that computers can already be as creative as humans—and someday will surpass us. But this is not a dystopian account; Miller celebrates the creative possibilities of artificial intelligence in art, music, and literature. |
| writings of the luddites: The Making of the English Working Class E. P. Thompson, 2016-03-15 A history of the common people and the Industrial Revolution: “A true masterpiece” and one of the Modern Library’s 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the twentieth century (Tribune). During the formative years of the Industrial Revolution, English workers and artisans claimed a place in society that would shape the following centuries. But the capitalist elite did not form the working class—the workers shaped their own creations, developing a shared identity in the process. Despite their lack of power and the indignity forced upon them by the upper classes, the working class emerged as England’s greatest cultural and political force. Crucial to contemporary trends in all aspects of society, at the turn of the nineteenth century, these workers united into the class that we recognize all across the Western world today. E. P. Thompson’s magnum opus, The Making of the English Working Class defined early twentieth-century English social and economic history, leading many to consider him Britain’s greatest postwar historian. Its publication in 1963 was highly controversial in academia, but the work has become a seminal text on the history of the working class. It remains incredibly relevant to the social and economic issues of current times, with the Guardian saying upon the book’s fiftieth anniversary that it “continues to delight and inspire new readers.” |
| writings of the luddites: The Eighteenth-century Current Bibliography , 2000 |
Writings - definition of Writings by The Free Dictionary
1. to draw (letters or other forms of script) on a surface, especially with a pen or pencil on paper. They wrote their names on a sheet of paper; The child has learned to read and write; Please …
WRITINGS | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
WRITINGS definition: 1. the written works of a person, especially when they have been published as books: 2. the…. Learn more.
WRITINGS Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of WRITINGS is the third part of the Jewish scriptures.
Writing | History, Styles, Types, Importance, & Facts | Britannica
writing, form of human communication by means of a set of visible marks that are related, by convention, to some particular structural level of language.
Writing - Wikipedia
Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a script, as well as the rules by which they encode a particular …
WRITINGS Definition & Meaning - Dictionary.com
Writings definition: another term for the Hagiographa. See examples of WRITINGS used in a sentence.
WRITINGS definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
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writings | meaning of writings in Longman Dictionary of …
writings meaning, definition, what is writings: the books, stories etc that an important...: Learn more.
WRITING Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of WRITING is the act or process of one who writes. How to use writing in a sentence.
Writing - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms | Vocabulary.com
Writing is the act of putting pen to paper...or fingers to keyboard...or even thumbs to phone pad. Any time you record language in script, whether that's a tweet or the next great American …
Writings - definition of Writings by The Free Dictionary
1. to draw (letters or other forms of script) on a surface, especially with a pen or pencil on paper. They wrote their names on a sheet of paper; The child has learned to read and write; Please …
WRITINGS | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
WRITINGS definition: 1. the written works of a person, especially when they have been published as books: 2. the…. Learn more.
WRITINGS Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of WRITINGS is the third part of the Jewish scriptures.
Writing | History, Styles, Types, Importance, & Facts | Britannica
writing, form of human communication by means of a set of visible marks that are related, by convention, to some particular structural level of language.
Writing - Wikipedia
Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a script, as well as the rules by which they encode a particular …
WRITINGS Definition & Meaning - Dictionary.com
Writings definition: another term for the Hagiographa. See examples of WRITINGS used in a sentence.
WRITINGS definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
→ See the Writings.... Click for English pronunciations, examples sentences, video.
writings | meaning of writings in Longman Dictionary of …
writings meaning, definition, what is writings: the books, stories etc that an important...: Learn more.
WRITING Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of WRITING is the act or process of one who writes. How to use writing in a sentence.
Writing - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms | Vocabulary.com
Writing is the act of putting pen to paper...or fingers to keyboard...or even thumbs to phone pad. Any time you record language in script, whether that's a tweet or the next great American …
