Finished reading: Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant 📚

Wow, this book surprised me. It’s a story very well told, and I learned a lot about the Luddite rebellion of the 1810s in England. Workers resisting their replacement by automation technology and their mistreatment in factories. “General Ludd” became a Robin Hood-like legend in Nottingham and surroundings.

Also:

• Dickens' Oliver Twist is said to be based on or influenced by stories of child labour from this period.
• I didn’t know Lord Byron – poet, parliamentarian, philanderer – was such a celebrity. His speech to Parliament about the Luddite cause is one of the best records we have, since so much organizing was done in secret.
• Also he got together with a few friends in Geneva ~1816 at a retreat where both Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) and Dracula were written. Frankenstein, especially, being influenced by Luddism.