The Industrial Revolutions

SMS Brandenburg, launched in 1891. In the lead up to WWI, was steered toward the global naval arms race. By 1914, they had 22 modern, steel-plated warships - second in Europe only to the UK.

German Emperor Wilhelm II (1859-1941) was much more active in the affairs of his empire than his predecessors and drove Otto von Bismarck to resign as Chancellor. Under his reign, abandoned for , leading to the empire’s eventual downfall.

Artwork depicting life in the working-class quarters of Berlin during the .

Founded by Emil Rathenau, AEG was the main competitor of Siemens in late 19th-century . Among their innovations was (1) Berlin’s first power plant, (2) electric rail, (3) electric fans, and (4) electric hair dryers.

The German in the : (1) The BASF factory in 1866; (2) A BASF lab in 1900; (3) Bayer’s Phenacetin plant in 1888; (4) A Bayer lab in 1891.
Learn more in Ch67 (available now)

Images of heavy industry during the German Empire. Learn all about this topic in Chapter 67: “The Iron Chancellor & Rise of ”

Two political cartoons featuring Otto von Bismarck and the . In the first, he plays chess with Pius IX during the Kulturkampf. In the second, he and Leo XIII are “‘Of One Mind’ (For Once!)”, combining their efforts to stop .
Learn more in Ch67, available now!

A view of the Reichstag building from around the time it was completed in 1894. Representing the people of the German Empire, its members were elected by equal, universal male suffrage, making it particularly democratic for the 19th Century.

The of the German Empire. While it was the first official tricolor of a unified , it was NOT the black, red, gold flag used by liberal nationalists during the revolutions of 1848. Otto von Bismarck had a different kind of nationalism in mind.
Learn more in Ch67!

“The Founders” of the German Empire: Emperor Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The “Founders’ Period” (der Gründerzeit!) was an extraordinary economic boom during the initial years of their rule.
More in Ch 67: The & Rise of !

Jalapeños are not as spicy as they used to be, and is to blame.

Here’s Why Jalapeño Peppers Are Less Spicy Than Ever Throw out those bogus shopping tips about pepper size. Decades of deliberate planning created a less-hot jalapeño.

Otto von Bismarck at age 21. As a young man, the future Iron Chancellor enjoyed athletic competitions, beer, womanizing, and sword fights. His mother pressuring him to become a career diplomat? Not as much.
Learn more about him in Chapter 67, available now!

Under Otto von Bismarck, underwent a major transformation and became a major industrial power. In this episode we cover the rise of the German Empire, until its untimely demise at the end of the .

A new bonus episode! Dave interviews Prof. Joseph Sassoon about his book on the Sassoons, a key trading family in the 1800s and early 1900s. We discuss the impact of the on their rise, as well as their fall.

“Coal Sculpture with Wall of Coloured Glass” (1999) by Jannis Kounellis. He called coal and iron “the materials that best evoke the world of the industrial revolution.” As he put it, “I cannot separate the use of such a mass of coal from a dramaturgy which puts humanity at the forefront. The human being as protagonist of a social drama, of a suffering and marginalised humanity...with his body and gestures, of an epic which inhabits my imagination.”
I saw this during my recent trip to London and wanted to share it with you.

How does the inform our current energy transition? In this bonus episode, Dr. Anton Howes walks us through his recent paper for Nesta, outlining the lessons for renewable energy from the days of coal’s ascendancy.

Bonus: Anton Howes (Lessons from the Age of Coal) Dave interviews historian Anton Howes on his paper for Nesta, "Lessons from the age of coal", about the energy transition of the First Industrial Revolution and how it relates to our transition away from fossil fuels today. Read the paper here: https://www.nesta.org.uk/feature/what-the-history-of-en...

The Amsterdam Congress of the Second International (1904). From 1889 until the First World War, the debated ideas and advanced worker internationalism. Listen to learn more about it in Chapter 66: “The Revolt of ”!

“Un soir de grève” by Belgian painter Eugène Laermans. It depicts his country’s General Strike of 1893, when and workers struck for universal suffrage - a turning point in European . Learn more in Ch 66!

The Pullman Strike (1894) - we cover the reasons for it and the aftermath in Chapter 66 of the : “The Revolt of .”

The Homestead (1892) inflicted great damage to the reputation of our old friend, Andrew and his empire. More about it in Chapter 66: The Revolt of - available now!

Shout out Chapter 59! 🇫🇷

16 January 1853 André Michelin was born. He founded the Michelin Tyre Company, one of the largest & most important tire companies on Earth. To promote car tourism he published the Michelin Guide which inaugurated a new era of travel & food tourism.

The Haymarket Massacre (1886) in was a turning point in American . Unions went in a more moderate direction. But the who were (dubiously) convicted and hanged became martyrs, and their grave is a pilgrimage site for radicals to this day.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was the first wave of labor unrest to consume the United States, with battles breaking out between striking workers and the National Guard in cities across the country.

In this bonus episode, Dave interviews researcher and blogger Ethan Johnson about the of coin-op devices, which largely came out of the Second .

Bonus: Ethan Johnson on the History of Coin-Operated Machines In this bonus episode, Dave interviews researcher and blogger Ethan Johnson about the history of coin-op devices, which largely came out of the Second Industrial Revolution. Learn more about Ethan’s work at https://thehistoryofhowweplay.wordpress.com/ https://mastodon.social/ and htt...

The Paris Commune in art

Photos from the Commune (1871) Learn all about it in Chapter 66: The Revolt of Labor, available now!

Samuel Gompers and Eugene V. Debs in the late - 2 American leaders with different approaches to the movement. Both feature prominently in Chapter 66, so be sure to listen to learn all about them.