You’re reading Age of Invention, my newsletter on the causes of the British Industrial Revolution and the history of innovation. This edition went out to over 16,300 subscribers. To support my work, you can upgrade your subscription here: As a historian, I’m often surprised by the ways people use my work. I rarely draw direct lessons from history for the present, and when I do, it’s rare for me to do so explicitly. There are often parallels, but I prefer not to spell them out — especially as readers tend to draw their own lessons anyway, often in fascinating ways that had never even occurred to me. History has a kind of natural and unpredictable appeal, even without an editorialising veneer. It even holds a kind of authority, especially when it shows a precedent for something that might otherwise seem controversial. If something was done before, we instinctively feel it may be done again. If something was
