Abstract
The Luddite Riots occurred during 1811–12 and again in 1816 with the counties of Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire being affected. The riots involved the smashing of machinery and, in some areas, setting fire to mills. Most of the standard texts present the Luddites as industrial hooligans, smashing machines which they thought were a threat to their jobs. This view, however, has recently been challenged by writers such as E. P. Thompson and Norman Longmate. There is more to Luddism than at first meets the eye.
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Bibliography
Dickinson, M., Britain, Europe and Beyond 1700–1900 (Macmillan, 1979)
Longmate, N., Milestones in Working Class History (BBC, 1975)
Thomis, M., The Luddites: Machine Breaking in Regency England (David and Charles, 1970)
Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class (Penguin, 1968)
Urban Sylvanus, The Gentleman’s Magazine, 1813
White, R. J., Waterloo to Peterloo (Penguin, 1968)
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© 1988 W. D. Taylor
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Taylor, D. (1988). The Luddites. In: Mastering Economic and Social History. Macmillan Master Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19377-6_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19377-6_5
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