The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain has often been depicted as a triumph of empiricism, of illiterate practical craftsmen without any kind of scientific training. This traditional view has been seriously challenged by A.E.Musson and Eric Robinson. The authors' main concern is with the early development of the engineering and chemical industries, but they also refer to many others. In addition, they detail the agencies that were available for the diffusion of science and technology - philosophical societies, itinerant lecturers, books and periodicals, etc. Many of the leading figures of the Industrial Revolution appear in these pages, with new insights into their achievements.

The mingling of aristocrats and commoners in a southern French city, the jostling of foreigners in stock markets across northern and western Europe, the club gatherings in Paris and London of genteel naturalists busily distilling plants or making air pumps, the ritual fraternizing of "brothers" in privacy and even secrecy-Margaret Jacob invokes all these examples in Strangers Nowhere in the World to provide glimpses of the cosmopolitan ethos that gradually emerged over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Jacob investigates what it was to be cosmopolitan in Europe during the early modern period. Then-as now-being cosmopolitan meant the ability to experience people of different nations, creeds, and colors with pleasure, curiosity, and interest. Yet such a definition did not come about automatically, nor could it always be practiced easily by those who embraced its principles. Cosmopolites had to strike a delicate balance between the transgressive and the subversive, the radical and the dangerous, the open-minded and the libertine. Jacob traces the history of this precarious balancing act to illustrate how ideals about cosmopolitanism were eventually transformed into lived experiences and practices. From the representatives of the Inquisition who found the mixing of Catholics and Protestants and other types of "border crossing" disruptive to their authority, to the struggles within urbane masonic lodges to open membership to Jews, Jacob also charts the moments when the cosmopolitan impulse faltered. Jacob pays particular attention to the impact of science and merchant life on the emergence of the cosmopolitan ideal. In the decades after 1650, modern scientific practices coalesced and science became an open enterprise. Experiments were witnessed in social settings of natural inquiry, congenial for the inculcation of cosmopolitan mores. Similarly, the public venues of the stock exchanges brought strangers and foreigners together in ways encouraging them to be cosmopolites. The amount of international and global commerce increased greatly after 1700, and luxury tastes developed that valorized foreign patterns and designs. Drawing upon sources as various as Inquisition records and spy reports, minutes of scientific societies and the writings of political revolutionaries, Strangers Nowhere in the World reveals a moment in European history when an ideal of cultural openness came to seem strong enough to counter centuries of chauvinism and xenophobia. Perhaps at no time since, Jacob cautions, has that cosmopolitan ideal seemed more fragile and elusive than it is today.

When first published in 1981, "The Radical Enlightenment" encountered both praise and blame. In the course of time it became a classic. In the era after 1945 the book was perhaps the first English language scholarly work to address freemasonry seriously. "a landmark in the studies of Masonic influences regarding the period of European enlightenment" - Bruno Gazzo, Editor of Pietre-Stones Review of Freemasonry "This book chronicles those beginning events in Europe which gave Freemasons a proud heritage of freedom and fighting for it. Try Jacob's book. I'll bet you buy extra copies to give to your friends." - Jim Tresner, Ph.D., Book Review Editor, "The Scottish Rite Journal"

Freemasonry bears the imprint of the society in which it exists, and Freemasonry in North America is no exception. While keeping close ties to French lodges until 1913, American Freemasonry was also deeply influenced by the experiences of many early American political leaders, leading to distinctive differences from European lodges. The author investigates the racial split in American Freemasonry between black lodges and white and how, unlike French lodges, women are ineligible to become Masons in the U.S. He examines how American Freemasonry has remained deeply religious across the centuries and forbids discussion of religious or social issues in its lodges, unlike some branches of French Freemasonry, which removed belief in God as a prerequisite for membership in 1877 and whose lodges operate in some respects as philosophical debating societies. Revealing the factors that have resulted in shrinking Masonic enrollment in America, the author explores the revitalization work done by the Grand Lodge of California and sounds the call to make Freemasonry and its principles relevant to America once again.

The Origins of Freemasonry Facts and Fictions Margaret C. Jacob "A classic in the field."--"American Historical Review" "Highly recommended."--"Choice" "When inviting us to go on a journey to the "Origins of Freemasonry," Margaret C. Jacob does not take us towards the mysterious deserts of the East or the dark chapels of the Knights Templar. But, once again, she demonstrates that real history is often much more fascinating than the most extravagant fictions."--Roger Dachez, President, Masonic Institute of France Can the ancestry of freemasonry really be traced back to the Knights Templar? Is the image of the eye in a triangle on the back of the dollar bill one of its cryptic signs? Is there a conspiracy that stretches through centuries and generations to align this shadow organization and its secret rituals to world governments and religions? Myths persist and abound about the freemasons, Margaret C. Jacob notes. But what are their origins? How has an early modern organization of bricklayers and stonemasons aroused so much public interest? In "The Origins of Freemasonry," Jacob throws back the veil from a secret society that turns out not to have been very secret at all. What factors contributed to the extraordinarily rapid spread of freemasonry over the course of the eighteenth century, and why were so many of the era's most influential figures drawn to it? Using material from the archives of leading masonic libraries in Europe, Jacob examines masonic almanacs and pocket diaries to get closer to what living as a freemason might have meant on a daily basis. She explores the persistent connections between masons and nascent democratic movements, as each lodge set up a polity where an individual's standing was meant to be based on merit, rather than on birth or wealth, and she demonstrates, beyond any doubt, how active a role women played in the masonic movement. Margaret C. Jacob is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of many books, including "Strangers Nowhere in the World: The Rise of Cosmopolitanism in Early Modern Europe," also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press, as well as "The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Selected Texts" and "Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West." 2005 176 pages 6 x 9 16 illus. ISBN 978-0-8122-3901-0 Cloth $39.95s 26.00 ISBN 978-0-8122-1988-3 Paper $21.95s 14.50 World Rights History Short copy: Myths persist and abound about the freemasons, but what are their origins? Margaret C. Jacob throws back the veil from a secret society that turns out not to have been very secret at all, revealing the truth about an organization that fascinated the eighteenth-century public in much the same way it fascinates us today.

Ever since the Industrial Revolution debate has raged about the sources of the new, sustained western prosperity. Margaret Jacob here argues persuasively for the critical importance of knowledge in Europe's economic transformation during the period from 1750 to 1850, first in Britain and then in selected parts of northern and western Europe. This is a new history of economic development in which minds, books, lectures and education become central. She shows how, armed with knowledge and know-how and inspired by the desire to get rich, entrepreneurs emerged within an industrial culture wedded to scientific knowledge and technology. She charts how, across a series of industries and nations, innovative engineers and entrepreneurs sought to make sense and a profit out of the world around them. Skilled hands matched minds steeped in the knowledge systems new to the eighteenth century to transform the economic destiny of western Europe.

Ever since the Industrial Revolution debate has raged about the sources of the new, sustained western prosperity. Margaret Jacob here argues persuasively for the critical importance of knowledge in Europe's economic transformation during the period from 1750 to 1850, first in Britain and then in selected parts of northern and western Europe. This is a new history of economic development in which minds, books, lectures and education become central. She shows how, armed with knowledge and know-how and inspired by the desire to get rich, entrepreneurs emerged within an industrial culture wedded to scientific knowledge and technology. She charts how, across a series of industries and nations, innovative engineers and entrepreneurs sought to make sense and a profit out of the world around them. Skilled hands matched minds steeped in the knowledge systems new to the eighteenth century to transform the economic destiny of western Europe.

Two French Protestant refugees in eighteenth-century Amsterdam gave the world an extraordinary work that intrigued and outraged readers across Europe. In this captivating account, Lynn Hunt, Margaret Jacob, and Wijnand Mijnhardt take us to the vibrant Dutch Republic and its flourishing book trade to explore the work that sowed the radical idea that religions could be considered on equal terms.

Famed engraver Bernard Picart and author and publisher Jean Frederic Bernard produced "The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of All the Peoples of the World," which appeared in the first of seven folio volumes in 1723. They put religion in comparative perspective, offering images and analysis of Jews, Catholics, Muslims, the peoples of the Orient and the Americas, Protestants, deists, freemasons, and assorted sects. Despite condemnation by the Catholic Church, the work was a resounding success. For the next century it was copied or adapted, but without the context of its original radicalism and its debt to clandestine literature, English deists, and the philosophy of Spinoza.

"Ceremonies and Customs" prepared the ground for religious toleration amid seemingly unending religious conflict, and demonstrated the impact of the global on Western consciousness. In this beautifully illustrated book, Hunt, Jacob, and Mijnhardt cast new light on the profound insight found in one book as it shaped the development of a modern, secular understanding of religion.

This volume of essays reflects the interests and expertise of H. G. Koenigsberger, Professor of History at King's College London, who has written and taught widely on early modern Europe, from Sicily and Spain to Germany, France and the Netherlands. The contributors pay tribute to Koenigsberger's range of interest by taking up themes that have resonated through his lectures, seminars and public writings. What emerges from a variety of approaches and topics is an overriding concern with intellectual unity, an overview which encompasses and reconciles the values of the politician or scholar with those of the spiritual idealist. Even the most overtly political of the major cultural figures discussed in these pages, as Robert Kingdon's essay on Calvin demonstrates, bent their political will to the service of an intense spiritual idealism.

This insightful work examines what happened to Newton's science as it was interpreted by his major followers. The authors also look at the scientific culture that Newton helped to create and the impact that his ideas had on the rapidly developing technology that led to the Industrial Revolution.

Clandestine philosophical manuscripts, made up of forbidden works including erotic texts, political pamphlets, satires of court life, forbidden religious texts, and books about the occult, had an avid readership in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, becoming objects of historical research by the twentieth century. The purveyors of the clandestine could be found in the Dutch Republic, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, and not least in Paris or London. Despite the heavy risks, including prison, the circulation of these manuscripts was a prosperous venture. After Ira Wade's pioneering contribution (1938), Clandestine Philosophy is the first work in English entirely focused on the philosophical clandestine manuscripts that preceded and accompanied the birth of the Enlightenment. Topics from philosophy, political and religious thought, and moral and sexual behaviour are addressed by contemporary authors working in both America and Europe. These manuscripts shed light on the birth of pornography and provide an important avenue for investigating philosophical, religious, political, and social critique.

This volume of essays reflects the interests and expertise of H. G. Koenigsberger, Professor of History at King's College London, who has written and taught widely on early modern Europe, from Sicily and Spain to Germany, France and the Netherlands. The contributors pay tribute to Koenigsberger's range of interest by taking up themes that have resonated through his lectures, seminars and public writings. What emerges from a variety of approaches and topics is an overriding concern with intellectual unity, an overview which encompasses and reconciles the values of the politician or scholar with those of the spiritual idealist. Even the most overtly political of the major cultural figures discussed in these pages, as Robert Kingdon's essay on Calvin demonstrates, bent their political will to the service of an intense spiritual idealism.

Margaret Jacob and Larry Stewart examine the profound transformation that began in 1687. From the year when Newton published his "Principia" to the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, science gradually became central to Western thought and economic development. The book aims at a general audience and examines how, despite powerful opposition on the Continent, a Newtonian understanding gained acceptance and practical application. By the mid-eighteenth century the new science had achieved ascendancy, and the race was on to apply Newtonian mechanics to industry and manufacturing. They end the story with the temple to scientific and technological progress that was the Crystal Palace exhibition. Choosing their examples carefully, Jacob and Stewart show that there was nothing preordained or inevitable about the centrality awarded to science. "It is easy to forget that science might have been stillborn, or remained the esoteric knowledge of court elites. Instead, for better and for worse, science became a centerpiece of Western culture."