M.I.T. Press By David A. Mindell. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 2025, 288 pp.
Reviewed by Eric P. Wenaas
M.I.T. Prof. David Mindell suggests that a second industrial revolution can be initiated with the help of a new Lunar Society modeled on the original 18th-century Lunar Society, a group of like-minded, enlightened men from the environs of Birmingham, England. The group was founded by Matthew Boulton, a toy maker, and Erasmus Darwin, Boulton’s friend and the grandfather of Charles Darwin. Other members with familiar names that joined later include James Watt, the steam engine inventor; Joseph Priestley, who discovered oxygen; Josiah Wedgwood, a noted pottery maker; and Benjamin Franklin, a printer and statesman. The members, who often corresponded, met monthly to develop ideas that propelled the Industrial Revolution. They called themselves the Lunar Society because they met on nights when there was a full moon to ensure safe travel home.
James Watt and Matthew Boulton soon became business partners, and together, they invented and commercialized the steam engine, which is generally credited with powering the Industrial Revolution. Mindell identifies Watt as a role model for entrepreneurs today: “Aspiring inventors today aim to emulate the Watt mythology, creating the pivotal invention that instantly changes the world.” Parenthetically, Watt seems to be an odd role model for entrepreneurs in the 21st century.
Mindell claims that Watt’s contribution was a product innovation, Boulton’s innovation was a process innovation, and the original Lunar Society was the “invention” that connected product innovation to process innovation that sparked the Industrial Revolution. He then asserts that industry in America today has too often lost this crucial link, and his book documents the need to marry product innovation to process innovation for an industrial future that better serves human ends. Mindell clarifies that he believes in a future that is not just about innovative products that serve human needs. He also sees a future that avoids environmental and human injustices in the entire manufacturing process from mining raw materials to distributing the final product. An emphasis on mining, manufacturing, and supply chains that include social and environmental justice is not new. It mirrors some of the concepts in green movements from the 20th century. (For example, see the Earth Charter dating to 2000: https://earthcharter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/echarter_english.pdf)
Mindell believes that we are on the cusp of an industrial change that will shape not only commerce and industry but also human subjectivity and behavior. He writes, “The nexus of energy, work, and technology that made industrial culture successful is failing the demands of the present and future. Supply chain breakdowns, labor scarcity, and vulnerable manufacturing threaten economic security. Industry is responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Climate change compels to reorient. This century requires a reinvention of industry in America.”
Mindell observes that when it comes to industrial systems, it takes many decades after a new technology proliferates to fully transform an industry. For example, Thomas Edison introduced the first practical lighting system in 1882, but it was another 50 years before half the households in the United States had electricity. Another example is aviation, which caused one of the most dramatic technological changes of the 20th century. It was 30 years after the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight in 1903 before the first commercially successful aircraft, the DC-3, was introduced in 1936. Another 30 years passed before the Boeing 707 jet aircraft was introduced in 1958, revolutionizing long-distance travel. He concludes that any new technology that will transform a large industrial system by 2050, such as a decarbonized power grid, must be ready today.
So, what is this book actually about? Mindell made a concise statement describing its content at a panel discussion held in the presence of an audience at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, MA, on 26 February 2025, the day after the book was released. The event included a conversation with fellow MIT Prof. Suzanne Berger and 2024 Nobel Prize winner Simon Johnson. Together, they discussed how lessons from the original 18th-century Lunar Society can form a new industrialism focused on sustainability, collaboration, and resilience in the face of climate change and global disruption. After a qualifying statement that the book was not about policy or graphs with supporting data, he stated that it was about “a steampunk fairy tale that actually happened.” He then proceeded to read the following sentences from his book, which sum up what it is all about.
Mindell believes that we are on the cusp of an industrial change that will shape not only commerce and industry but also human subjectivity and behavior.
In the ensuing short chapters, 44 in all, each consisting of only a few pages, he elaborates on these concepts by recounting the activities and contributions of the original Lunar Society members and reviewing the state of industry in the United States in modern times through their eyes. His goal is to encourage new industrialists to reinvent industry and, at the same time, improve the world by factoring in the human and environmental elements.
In one of these 44 chapters titled “Lunar Societies Today,” Mindell claims he is observing where new industrialisms are taking place. He writes, “For the past several years I have been convening a group of industrial thinkers for a series of dinners in a group I call the Lunar Society. The naming after the original is modest, aspirational toward a new Industrial Enlightenment. Like the original, today’s Lunar Society has no formal status of any kind.” He says that attendees include founders of companies in manufacturing, computer-aided design, and renewable energy, as well as investors, policy makers, and frontline workers. Mindell does not identify any other group claiming to be a Lunar Society, so that raises the question whether the book title, The New Lunar Society, refers to his group or is a metaphor for today’s unnamed enlightened industrialists who are like-minded.
Another present-day lunar society, based on the original Lunar Society, was formed in 1990 by a group led by Dame Rachel Waterhouse with its headquarters also in Birmingham. The stated goal of the organization, officially named “The Lunar Society,” is “to influence change through focusing and informing debate, linking social, economic, scientific and cultural thinking, and catalyzing action on issues critical to the common good.” (See https://lunarsociety.org.uk/) Mindell does not mention this society in his book.
Mindell observes that when it comes to industrial systems, it takes many decades after a new technology proliferates to fully transform an industry.
Mindell concludes his book with a 10-page chapter that describes what “a new industrialism should look like.” He describes how “Industrial Enlightenment” can be updated to meet the demands of today with six introductory statements set off by italics, each statement followed by an explanatory but rambling discussion. Mindell’s vision is expansive, if not expensive. He does not prioritize the requirements, nor does he provide cost estimates. He asserts that his book is not about policy, nor does it provide statistics. It seems to me that painting a picture of what a new industrialism should look like without addressing policy issues and cost estimates is utopian at best. In the end, he states, “These components of a new industrialization are not entirely new but rather a broad movement to be congealed and elevated.” Presumably, the congealing and elevating are to be done with the assistance of new but unidentified and informal lunar societies scattered throughout the country.
Indeed, Mindell’s visions of a new industrialization are not entirely new. For example, the noted book, Remaking America [1], published in 2013 with essays by 10 authors, identifies most of the concepts expressed by Mindell and has a chapter on policy by Scott Paul, President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, who provides a blueprint for reindustrializing American industry. Paul begins by identifying the conventional wisdom that resulted in the offshoring of industry in the first place, such as outsourcing is a good thing, trade deficits do not matter, and automation is the cause of lost jobs. Paul then identifies policies that have encouraged the offshoring of industry, such as incentives that allow deferral of taxes on foreign income, trade agreements that reduce tariffs, and educational policies that promote higher education to the detriment of the schooling of trades needed in manufacturing. He observes that a free market society cannot reindustrialize America by itself. Thus, appropriate federal government policies are critical for achieving this goal. Paul provides blueprints for policies on 10 topics, for example, tax credits, exchange rates, infrastructure investment, government procurement, trade laws, trade deficits, and workforce development. He also proposes 10 policies that states and municipalities can introduce. However, he does not point out that one overriding problem in the United States is maintaining polices long enough to produce results, given that the two major political parties have significantly different views on the goals, priorities, and methods.
Whether there is a link between the reindustrialization of the United States and the original Lunar Society, or new lunar societies, is in the eye of the beholder. Regardless of the eye, Mindell’s history of the original Lunar Society is excellent. I particularly enjoyed his account of the first pin factory in Birmingham, which is considered by all to be the historical beginning of the production line for manufacturing. He interspersed the chapters on the history of the Lunar Society with chapters describing vignettes on more current histories of industrialization. I particularly enjoyed the vignette on the great toilet paper crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. I recommend this book, and I believe that you will find it entertaining and thought-provoking.
Reviewer Information
Eric P. Wenaas writes a book review column for Antique Wireless Association Journal and has written a book and published many articles on the history of wireless communication. He has a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies in engineering from SUNY Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA. Email: eric@chezwenaas.com.
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