2008-04-30 Good overview of the period

This book is one of a number of recent history books that are academically well researched, but are so well written with the layman in mind, that interest is maintained throughout and a truly remarkable story emerges. Rather than just concentrating on any one country's response to the industrial revolution, Gavin Weightman lays greater emphasis on the transmission of ideas between countries and continents, concentrating less on the well known (and often unjustifiably praised) pioneer inventors and more on the entrepreneurs or "fixers" who were ideas men who got unsung engineers in to turn their dreams into reality. What was especially fascinating for me were the stories relating to how Japan came late to industrialism but how within 50 years they had virtually caught the rest of the industrialised nations up.

There is an extensive bibliography for those who want to delve deeper into individual aspects of this subject, as it has to be admitted this is a sketch of what is obviously a much wider subject. Still it is a very good, interesting and thought provoking sketch which should appeal to anyone interested in this era of history.

One caveat would have to be that there are numerous typographical errors, stray hyphens and commas in my paperback edition which suggests that the proofs were just spell checked rather than read, but this is a minor quibble.