Engineering the Revolution

by Ken Alder

The French Revolution and Industrial Revolution together inaugurated the modern era. But recent historical "revisionists" have divorced eighteenth-century material conditions from concurrent political struggles. This book's anti-teleological approach repudiates technological determinism to document the forging of a new relationship between technology and politics in Revolutionary France. It does so through the history of a particular artifact--the gun. Expanding the "political" to include conflict over material objects, Ken Alder rethinks the nature of engineering rationality, the origins of mass production, and our interpretation of the French Revolution.

Near the end of the Enlightenment, a cadre of artillery engineers transformed the design, production, and deployment of military guns. Part 1 shows how the gun, the first artifact amenable to scientific analysis, was redesigned by engineers committed to new meritocratic forms of technological knowledge and how the Revolutionaries and artillery officer Napoleon exploited their techno-social designs.

Part 2 shows how the gun became the first artifact to be mass producedwith interchangeable parts, as French engineers deployed "objective" drawings and automatic machinery to enforce production standards in the face of artisanal resistance. And Part 3 places the gun at the center of a technocratic revolution led by engineers on the Committee of Public Safety, a revolution whose failure inaugurated modern capitalist techno-politics. This book offers a challenging demonstration of how material artifacts emerge as the negotiated outcome of political struggle.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Kate Kuisel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good if ur into that

[Marks54 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic book!!! Very relevant to my dissertation. Alder makes important connections between the development of knowledge and political concerns. Technology cannot be understood without taking into account the motives and interests of the creators. Also several key examples of the state-building and nationalism. No time for a complete review but I am glad I stumbled on this work.

[AskHistorians]

Focuses on the technological, social, and political aspects of retooling the French military to better fight in the future, which is important for later dominance under Napoleon's rule.