Reviews for Engineering the Revolution: Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763-1815

The average rating for Engineering the Revolution: Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763-1815 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-08-29 00:00:00 Kim Cook This is one of the most ambitious book I've read in a while. Alder tackles the origins of engineering as a discipline, the purported inevitability of interchangeable parts and mass production, and the formation of the French Revolutionary state through the artifact of the gun (both artillery and muskets). Taking as a starting point Langdon Winner's question "Do artefacts have politics?", Alder demonstrates that mastery over the 'thick' world of material objects via mechanical drawings, mathematical description, and the tools of analytic theory is intensely political. This is not a book for the faint of heart. It's long, dense, and prior background in the history of technology and the structure of the Ancien Regime is necessary. But for all that, it's a masterpiece of scholarship.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-20 00:00:00 Nathan Kroll This is a book about how Napoleon and others coopted the technical elites in France to help secure their success in the French Revolution and the wars that accompanied it. I am not a specialist on French Revolution historiography but this book was very influential in criticizing certain stereotypes that had grown up around the revolution. To me, the book provides a rare link between politics an economy and thus is richer than your tradition political or military history. It also helps explain the conservative outcome of the revolutionary traumas. Finally, it gives an example of a technical innovation - rifling in cannons and standardized production - that was suppressed for political reasons. Example of this taking place are very unusual in history - much more often successful innovation, especially in weapons - wins out. It was not an easy read and specialists will no doubt get more out of it, but I was happy that I read it.