Ask HN: What Are Some Good Books on the First Industrial Revolution?

<https://archive.org/details/industrialrevol00toyngoog/page/n...>

See note on Worldcat links / surveillance below.

I'm strongly partial to looking at history through the lens / frame of energy. Several books and authors do this:

- Matthieu Auzanneau, Oil, Power, and War: a dark history. Chelsea Green Publishing Co., (2020). https://www.worldcat.org/title/oil-power-and-war-a-dark-hist...

- Vaclav Smil, Energy in World History. Routledge (1994) https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-in-world-history/oclc/...

- Vaclav Smil, Energy and civilization : a history. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, (2018) https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-and-civilization-a-his...

- Manfred Weissenbacher, Sources of power : how energy forges human history (2 vols). Praeger, (2009). https://www.worldcat.org/title/sources-of-power-how-energy-f...

- Richard Rhodes, Energy : a human history. Simon & Schuster (2019) https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-a-human-history/oclc/1...

- Economic history of energy and environment. Springer (2016). https://www.worldcat.org/title/economic-history-of-energy-an...

- Anthony N Penna, A history of energy flows : from human labor to renewable power. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, (2020). https://www.worldcat.org/title/history-of-energy-flows-from-...

- Cutler J Cleveland, Concise encyclopedia of history of energy. Elsevier, (2009) https://www.worldcat.org/title/concise-encyclopedia-of-histo...

- Joseph A Pratt, Energy Capitals : Local Impact, Global Influence. University of Pittsburgh Press, (2014). https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-capitals-local-impact-...

There's a series edited by Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University and published by the Princeton University Press, "The Princeton Economic History of the Western World" with a number of highly recommended titles:

<https://press.princeton.edu/series/the-princeton-economic-hi...>

In particular:

- Gregory Clark, A Farewell to Alms, looking specifically at why the Industrial Revolution arose in Britain in the 19th century.

- Robert J. Gordon The Rise and Fall of American Growth, on the 150 years from 1870--2020, and the trajectory of growth in the US over that period.

(There are far more books in the series, and I've read only a small fraction. Numerous other titles look highly promising.)

There's Joel Mokyr's own The Gifts of Athena: <https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691120133/th...>

R.U. Ayres (Robert) has written a number of articles and essays looking at technological development which are IMO highly underrated.

The question of why the IR arose in the UK has been called "the Needham Question" (especially in contrast with why it did not arise in China, which has a long and deep history of technological innovation). I'm not aware of any single treatment of this, and Needham's own Science and Civilisation in China despite its excellence in cataloguing China's accomplishments really doesn't serve as a concise answer either.

Warning that Worldcat seems to exfiltrate both search terms and searcher's IPs to Facebook and Google. See: <https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1570183006689673222.html>.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of a suitable replacement service presently, though Internet Archive's Open Library is getting there.