Ingenious Machinists: Two Inventive Lives from the American Industrial Revolution (Excelsior Editions) - Softcover

"Ingenious Machinists is a model of narrative history--readers will not soon forget these compelling biographies. This book would make an inspired addition to the reading lists of a college history course because the juxtaposed narratives so smoothly co-opt the reader into the process of analysis and synthesis. The larger proto-industrial themes and contextual connections throughout Ingenious Machinists make this work valuable for early American historians as well as historians of technology, business and labor historians, and general readers seeking an engaging introduction to the evolution of industrial America." -- Journal of the Early Republic

"Historians interested in this late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century period will find that this dual biography brings to their attention machinists who played key roles in textile manufacturing, arguably the nation's first major industry. General readers will find a broad interpretation of life in southern New England, and to a lesser extent the Albany region of New York state, from the perspective of early industrial history." -- Journal of Economic History

"David Wilkinson and Paul Moody have long deserved full biographies. By comparing the careers of two notable figures and including a wealth of material about the people around them, Connors gives us a much more detailed, varied, and realistic image of life in industrial America than we have seen before. This is social, technological, business, and economic history at its best, all tied together in a compelling dual biography. The book will fascinate general readers with an interest in history or biography, but it will also appeal strongly to specialists in many fields." -- Patrick M. Malone, author of Waterpower in Lowell: Engineering and Industry in Nineteenth-Century America