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Episodes

Chapter 68: Industrialization Spreads East

In the mid-19th Century, two eastern empires were humiliated by industrialized powers. To avoid further humiliation, they both decided to industrialize themselves. In the late 19th Century, Russia and Japan went through rapid modernization. But which of the two succeeded would shock everyone, come 1905.

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Dave Broker
Chapter 67: The Iron Chancellor & Rise of Germany

The Second Industrial Revolution more or less coincided with the lifespan of the German Empire. From 1871 to 1914, the new nation adopted a fairly democratic constitution, saw massive population growth, and experienced extraordinary economic development…

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Dave Broker
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.

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Dave Broker
Chapter 66: The Revolt of Labor

At the end of the 19th Century, workers throughout the world were fighting increasingly bitter, bloody battles against their capitalist bosses and the governments protecting them.

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Dave Broker
Chapter 64: Economic Ideas (The Neoclassics)

Beginning in the 1870s, the Neoclassical School of Economics emerged. Borrowing the idea of marginal analysis from calculus, and applying it to the ethical theory of Utilitarianism, they revolutionized the way economics was discussed.

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Dave Broker
Chapter 63: Finance and Turbulence

As industrialization drove economic growth all over the Western World, financial systems had to keep growing in complexity and value. And as they did, they continued to drive industrialization further in turn. And, then as now, they were susceptible to greedy players, bad decisions, and panic.

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Dave Broker
Chapter 62: An American Aristocracy

Americans had long believed their country was a classless society. But by the end of the 19th Century, that myth had been shattered. In the Gilded Age, a super-rich elite emerged.

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Dave Broker
Chapter 61: New Energy, New Engine

In the mid-19th Century, two new industrial developments were underway. In the UK and US, new discoveries were made for the refining of crude petroleum into numerous useful oils. Meanwhile, in France and Germany, engineers were starting to produce the first commercially viable internal combustion engines. Together, these two breakthroughs would open up a world of possibilities and, in time, put an end to the Steam Age.

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Dave Broker
Chapter 59: Steel and Rubber

It is simply impossible to imagine life today without the mass-production of steel and rubber, made possible during the Technological Revolution…

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Dave Broker
Chapter 58: A New Commercial Era

More so than in the First Industrial Revolution, the Second Industrial Revolution saw big changes in consumer markets. Thanks to mail-order catalogs, dry goods palaces, and new department stores, consumers had more options than ever before…

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Dave Broker
Chapter 57 Bonus: The Legend of John Henry

Since we talked about America’s railroad age in Chapter 57 – and because it’s Black History Month – this is the perfect time to discuss an iconic American folktale: The legend of John Henry…

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Dave Broker