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The New Lunar Society: An Enlightenment Guide to the Next Industrial Revolution
How to create our industrial future with inspiration and lessons from the originators of the industrial revolution.
Climate change, global disruption, and labor scarcity are forcing us to rethink the underlying principles of industrial society. In The New Industrialism, David Mindell envisions this new industrialism from the fundamentals, drawing on the eighteenth century when first principles were formed at the founding of the industrial revolution. While outlining the new industrialism, he tells the story of the Lunar Society, a group of engineers, scientists, and industrialists who came together to apply the principles of the Enlightenment to industrial processes. Those principles were collaboration, the marriage of practical and scientific knowledge, and the belief that the world could progress through making things.
The Lunar Society included pioneers like James Watt, Benjamin Franklin, and Josiah Wedgwood, and their conversations did no less than ignite the Industrial Revolution and shape the founding of the United States. Telling the stories of these makers in parallel with those of our current moment of crisis on multiple fronts, Mindell argues for a new industrialism. He What does industry look like when it strives to optimize for the lowest carbon footprint as well as the greatest profit? When it values resilience as much as efficiency? When it upholds dignified, inclusive, sustainable work? Optimistic but not utopian about our ability to build the world, The New Industrialism shines a light on how a new generation can re-animate the best ideas of our thinking doer forebears and begin to build a future that is both realistic and human-centered.
Climate change, global disruption, and labor scarcity are forcing us to rethink the underlying principles of industrial society. In The New Industrialism, David Mindell envisions this new industrialism from the fundamentals, drawing on the eighteenth century when first principles were formed at the founding of the industrial revolution. While outlining the new industrialism, he tells the story of the Lunar Society, a group of engineers, scientists, and industrialists who came together to apply the principles of the Enlightenment to industrial processes. Those principles were collaboration, the marriage of practical and scientific knowledge, and the belief that the world could progress through making things.
The Lunar Society included pioneers like James Watt, Benjamin Franklin, and Josiah Wedgwood, and their conversations did no less than ignite the Industrial Revolution and shape the founding of the United States. Telling the stories of these makers in parallel with those of our current moment of crisis on multiple fronts, Mindell argues for a new industrialism. He What does industry look like when it strives to optimize for the lowest carbon footprint as well as the greatest profit? When it values resilience as much as efficiency? When it upholds dignified, inclusive, sustainable work? Optimistic but not utopian about our ability to build the world, The New Industrialism shines a light on how a new generation can re-animate the best ideas of our thinking doer forebears and begin to build a future that is both realistic and human-centered.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published February 25, 2025
About the author
David A. Mindell
12 books28 followersElectrical engineer, historian, and entrepreneur. Co-Founder and partner at Unless, an investment firm focused on supporting companies at the forefront of industrial transformation.
A Professor of Aerospace Engineering at MIT, David is an expert on robotic navigation and human interactions with autonomous systems in air, sea, and space. As Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing, David is a leading authority on generations of inventors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and workers within the great arcs of technological change. He has led or participated in more than 25 oceanographic expeditions, written seven books, and is an inventor on 34 patents in RF navigation, autonomous systems, and AI-assisted piloting. He also spent five years as a Department Head at MIT. David co- Chaired MIT’s Task Force on the Work of the Future. Founder and Executive Chairman at Humatics with a mission to revolutionize how people and machines locate, navigate and collaborate. David has undergraduate degrees from Yale and a Ph.D. from MIT.
A Professor of Aerospace Engineering at MIT, David is an expert on robotic navigation and human interactions with autonomous systems in air, sea, and space. As Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing, David is a leading authority on generations of inventors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and workers within the great arcs of technological change. He has led or participated in more than 25 oceanographic expeditions, written seven books, and is an inventor on 34 patents in RF navigation, autonomous systems, and AI-assisted piloting. He also spent five years as a Department Head at MIT. David co- Chaired MIT’s Task Force on the Work of the Future. Founder and Executive Chairman at Humatics with a mission to revolutionize how people and machines locate, navigate and collaborate. David has undergraduate degrees from Yale and a Ph.D. from MIT.
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April 1, 2025Where is the GitHub for manufacturing operations? Most robots today use different, custom interfaces that companies need to integrate from scratch. A little interoperability will go a long way.
March 20, 2025
David Mindell's take on learning lessons for the present from the eighteenth century Lunar Society could easily have been a dull academic tome, but instead it was a delight to read. Mindell splits the book into a series of short essay-like chapters which includes details of the characters involved in and impact of the Lunar Society, which effectively kick-started the Industrial Revolution, interwoven with an analysis of the decline of industry in modern twentieth and twenty-first century America, plus the potential for taking a Lunar Society approach to revitalise industry for the future.
We see how a group of men (they were all men back then) based in the English Midlands (though with a strong Scottish contingent) brought together science, engineering and artisan skills in a way that made the Industrial Revolution and its (eventual) impact on improving the lot of the masses possible. Interlaced with this, Mindell shows us how 'industrial' has become something of a dirty word, and how many modern businesses are focused on product innovation without the accompanying need for process innovation, leading in part to a dependence on dangerously frail supply chains to produce anything from cars and IT to vaccines. In part because of the enjoyably bite-sized chapters, this is highly engaging.
The only bit of the book I felt let the reader down was the last few chapters (out of 44 in total). In part this was because the solutions offered seemed weak when compared with the diagnosis, and what had been a dynamic and interesting history seemed to move into more of a business-speak/academic viewpoint which rarely seems to generate usable solutions. I would also have liked to have seen the largely-US bogeyman of the 'military-industrial complex' tackled, as this surely has some implications for the way industry is approached in America.
These are relatively small irritations and omissions, though. Overall, the way that Mindell weaves the story of the development of industry through the interaction of these historical figures and looks for a new way to revive the sector is extremely impressive.
We see how a group of men (they were all men back then) based in the English Midlands (though with a strong Scottish contingent) brought together science, engineering and artisan skills in a way that made the Industrial Revolution and its (eventual) impact on improving the lot of the masses possible. Interlaced with this, Mindell shows us how 'industrial' has become something of a dirty word, and how many modern businesses are focused on product innovation without the accompanying need for process innovation, leading in part to a dependence on dangerously frail supply chains to produce anything from cars and IT to vaccines. In part because of the enjoyably bite-sized chapters, this is highly engaging.
The only bit of the book I felt let the reader down was the last few chapters (out of 44 in total). In part this was because the solutions offered seemed weak when compared with the diagnosis, and what had been a dynamic and interesting history seemed to move into more of a business-speak/academic viewpoint which rarely seems to generate usable solutions. I would also have liked to have seen the largely-US bogeyman of the 'military-industrial complex' tackled, as this surely has some implications for the way industry is approached in America.
These are relatively small irritations and omissions, though. Overall, the way that Mindell weaves the story of the development of industry through the interaction of these historical figures and looks for a new way to revive the sector is extremely impressive.
May 16, 2026
The New Lunar Society examines how humanity might rethink civilization, innovation, and social organization in a rapidly changing technological era. It does this by revisiting the history and influence of key members of the original Lunar Society, including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Watt, William Small, and Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus Darwin, Matthew Boulton among others.
A central argument of the book is that future progress will depend less on rigid, industrial era systems and more on creativity, decentralized thinking, interdisciplinary collaboration, and flexible networks of innovators. Rather than relying primarily on large centralized institutions, the author suggests that innovation will increasingly emerge from smaller, globally connected groups of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and thinkers who collaborate across disciplines in ways similar to the original Lunar Society.
The book emphasizes that progress today is driven by openness and an open exchange of ideas, rapid experimentation, and cooperation across boundaries, rather than strictly hierarchical organizations or traditional mass production models.
Overall, it is a worthwhile read. However, I would have preferred a more enthusiastic tone from the author when describing this remarkable group of historical figures, along with a deeper exploration of their lasting influence on science, industry, politics, and modern civilization.
A central argument of the book is that future progress will depend less on rigid, industrial era systems and more on creativity, decentralized thinking, interdisciplinary collaboration, and flexible networks of innovators. Rather than relying primarily on large centralized institutions, the author suggests that innovation will increasingly emerge from smaller, globally connected groups of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and thinkers who collaborate across disciplines in ways similar to the original Lunar Society.
The book emphasizes that progress today is driven by openness and an open exchange of ideas, rapid experimentation, and cooperation across boundaries, rather than strictly hierarchical organizations or traditional mass production models.
Overall, it is a worthwhile read. However, I would have preferred a more enthusiastic tone from the author when describing this remarkable group of historical figures, along with a deeper exploration of their lasting influence on science, industry, politics, and modern civilization.
February 20, 2026
This is an important read. My LI post https://www.linkedin.com/posts/standl...
May 4, 2026
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better"
also America is not USA
also America is not USA
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews