Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn

Paul Revere and the Growth of American Enterprise
Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8018-9758-0
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 432 Seiten, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 224 mm, Gewicht: 612 g

Reihe: Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology

Paul Revere's ride to warn the colonial militia of the British march on Lexington and Concord is a legendary contribution to the American Revolution. Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn reveals another side of this American hero's life, that of a transformational entrepreneur instrumental in the industrial revolution.

Robert Martello combines a biographical examination of Revere with a probing study of the new nation’s business and technological climate. A silversmith prior to the Revolution and heralded for his patriotism during the war, Revere aspired to higher social status within the fledgling United States. To that end, he shifted away from artisan silversmithing toward larger, more involved manufacturing ventures such as ironworking, bronze casting, and copper sheet rolling. Drawing extensively on the Revere Family Papers, Martello explores Revere’s vibrant career successes and failures, social networks, business practices, and the groundbreaking metallurgical technologies he developed and employed. Revere’s commercial ventures epitomized what Martello terms proto-industrialization, a transitional state between craft work and mass manufacture that characterizes the broader, fast-changing landscape of the American economy. Martello uses Revere as a lens to view the social, economic, and technological milieu of early America while demonstrating Revere’s pivotal role in both the American Revolution and the rise of industrial America.

Original and well told, this account argues that the greatest patriotic contribution of America's Midnight Rider was his work in helping the nation develop from a craft to an industrial economy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Martello, Robert

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Technikgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Biographien & Autobiographien: Historisch, Politisch, Militärisch

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Chapter 1. Artisan, Silversmith, and Businessman (1754–1775)
Chapter 2. Patriot, Soldier, and Handyman of the Revolution (1775–1783)
Chapter 3. Mercantile Ambitions and a New Look at Silver (1783–1789)
Chapter 4. To Run a "Furnass": The Iron Years (1788–1792)
Chapter 5. Bells, Cannon, and Malleable Copper (1792–1801)
Chapter 6. Paul Revere's Last Ride: The Road to Rolling Copper (1798–1801)
Chapter 7. The Onset of Industrial Capitalism: Managerial and Labor Adaptations (1802–1811)
Chapter 8. Becoming Industrial: Technological Innovations and Environmental Implications (1802–1811)
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendixes
1. Major Events in the Narratives of Paul Revere and America
2. Four Proto-industrial Production Factors and Major Linkages
3. Prevalent Craft and Industrial Practices in the Proto-industrial Period
4. Selected Revere Engravings
5. Furnace Startup Expenses for 1787–1788
6. April 1796 Payments to Faxon
7. Revere's Second Letter to Benjamin Stoddert, February 26, 1800
8. Employee Salaries, 1802–1806
9. Typical Stages in the Growth of a Large Technological System
Notes
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Martello, Robert
Robert Martello is an associate professor of the history of science and technology at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.