First published in 1898, this fiction deals with surprisingly contemporary issues of the period and is the social history of the time it stands out. What makes this work different from the existing literature of that period is the use of the local dialect and the expertise with which the characters and their lives have been portrayed at a period of such unrest in the Colne Valley. The Luddites were not unreasonable machine destroyers but desperate men, suffering in destitution, sorrow, and despair, fighting for a voice to be heard against cruel mill owners and a crooked government. The authors of this work were transparent in their compassion for the cause of these workers and the background and reasoning behind these events The book was originally credited to D. F. E. Sykes and G. H. Walker, G. H., but Walker's name.
Although the book was initially credited to D. F. E. Sykes and G. H. Walker, G. H. Walker's name is missing from the third edition, and it is essentially Sykes' work.First published in 1898
This book has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.
"As mechanization spread through the British cloth industries in the early nineteenth century, skilled textile workers, already suffering because of a generally weak economy, high unemployment, and the weakening of traditional guides, saw their wages and jobs erode further. Earlier efforts to block the introduction of powered machinery through legislation had failed, and in 1811 loosely organized bands of workers, striking most often by night - first in the Midlands, then in Yorkshire and Northwestern England - began destroying the new knitting frames and other equipment. Claiming as their leader the probably mythical Ned Ludd, they became known as Luddites. Although best known for violent action, the Luddite movement also produced a considerable body of writing, from threatening letters, to petitions and proclamations, to poems and songs. In this book, literary scholar Kevin Binfield collects a broad range of complete texts written by Luddites or their sympathizers from 1811 to 1816, adding detailed notes on each and organizing them according to the three major regions of Luddite activity." "To introduce the volume Binfield provides a historical overview of the Luddites, then examines more closely their rhetorical strategies while illuminating the literary contexts of their writings. Ranging from judicious to bloodthirsty in tone, the texts reveal a fascination with legal forms of address and an acute awareness of the recent political revolutions in France and America, and reflect also the more personal forms of Romantic literature. As Adrian Randall of the University of Birmingham concludes in his foreword, this collection of diverse, carefully presented texts clearly demonstrates the significance of Luddite writings within the movement and serves as an important reference for scholars of rhetoric and of the history of labor, technology, and society." --Book Jacket.
This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.
This work is the third semi-autobiographical novel by D. F. E. Sykes, a gifted scholar, solicitor, local politician, and newspaper proprietor. Skyes, in this work, draws heavily on his own life experiences like almost all of his novels. He is indeed the Edward Beaumont of the novel. An account of His solicitor's training and early political longings is presented in this work, along with his romance with a Lincolnshire vicar's daughter. However, he remains particular in what he reveals about himself and uses an incredible writing style to make the book more appealing. He gives the readers an insight into his thoughts, beliefs, desires, and the hardships he must have survived before turning his life around. This work proves to be helpful in providing a beneficial message on how a talented man can be destroyed for his beliefs and his battle, with support, to retrieve his self-esteem.
Tom Pinder, Foundling is a romantic and moral tale set in the early period of the 19th Century. It focuses on the life of an orphan, Victorian values, the beginning of the cooperative movement, and the Holmfirth flood. The story's backdrop is Greenfield and Holme Valleys. It was a time when both were a part of West Yorkshire. D. F. E. Sykes was a talented scholar, lawyer, local politician, and newspaper owner. He was one of few novelists who chose to portray the lives of ordinary people of his period. For this reason alone, this work is a valuable work on social history. His use of the local dialect and ability to sketch exciting characters and their relationships adds significantly to the novel's readability.
From the cars we drive to the instant messages we receive, from debate about genetically modified foods to astonishing strides in cloning, robotics, and nanotechnology, it would be hard to deny technology's powerful grip on our lives. To stop and ask whether this digitized, implanted reality is quite what we had in mind when we opted for progress, or to ask if we might not be creating more problems than we solve, is likely to peg us as hopelessly backward or suspiciously eccentric. Yet not only questioning, but challenging technology turns out to have a long and noble history. In this timely and incisive work, Nicols Fox examines contemporary resistance to technology and places it in a surprising historical context. She brilliantly illuminates the rich but oftentimes unrecognized literary and philosophical tradition that has existed for nearly two centuries, since the first Luddites—the ""machine breaking"" followers of the mythical Ned Ludd—lifted their sledgehammers in protest against the Industrial Revolution. Tracing that current of thought through some of the great minds of the 19th and 20th centuries—William Blake, Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, William Morris, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Graves, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, and many others—Fox demonstrates that modern protests against consumptive lifestyles and misgivings about the relentless march of mechanization are part of a fascinating hidden history. She shows as well that the Luddite tradition can yield important insights into how we might reshape both technology and modern life so that human, community, and environmental values take precedence over the demands of the machine. In Against the Machine, Nicols Fox writes with compelling immediacy—bringing a new dimension and depth to the debate over what technology means, both now and for our future.
