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Palgrave Macmillan

The Singularity of Western Innovation

The Language Nexus

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Leonard Dudley

    1. Montreal, Canada

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  • Explores the connection between language, technology, and empire

  • Argues that standardized language made the Industrial Revolution possible

  • Connects literacy to the rise of the West in the seventeenth century

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
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  2. Introduction

    • Leonard Dudley
    Pages 1-27

  3. The Linguistic RevolutionLinguistic Revolution

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29
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    2. 1600: The Dynastic Cycle

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 31-57

    3. Printing

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 59-80

    4. Literacy

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 81-97

    5. Language Standardization

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 99-123

  4. The Industrial Revolution

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 125-125
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    2. 1700: Financing the Imperial State

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 127-149

    3. Steam Makes Waves

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 151-165

    4. Machines to Make Machines

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 167-179

    5. Cloning the Industrial Revolution

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 181-192

  5. The (Second) Military RevolutionMilitary Revolution (Second)

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 193-193
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    2. 1793: A Geopolitical Watershed

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 195-213

    3. Steamships

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 215-228

    4. Rifled Artillery

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 229-242

    5. Mass-Produced Firearms

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 243-263

    6. Conclusion

      • Leonard Dudley
      Pages 265-286

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 287-316
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Keywords

About this book

This book highlights the contribution of language standardization to the economic rise of the West between 1600 and 1860. Previous studies have been unable to explain why during this period almost all industrial innovation was confined to small areas around the main cultural centers of three Western states – Britain, France, and the United states.  This book argues that Western Europe and its offshoots were the only Eurasian societies able to apply typography cheaply to their writing systems.  The emergence in the West of large networks of people able to communicate in standardized languages made possible the breakthroughs of the Industrial Revolution. Military byproducts of three “macro-innovations”– the steam engine, machine tools, and interchangeable parts – then constituted the West’s toolbox for empire. The book will appeal to readers seeking to explain how the West attained its unprecedented advance over Asia in the nineteenth century, and why this lead has since proved temporary.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Montreal, Canada

    Leonard Dudley

About the author

Leonard Dudley is Honorary Professor at the Université de Montréal, Canada. He received his PhD in economics from Yale University, USA, and his principal research interest is technological change.

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