Customer Reviews

Forging America: Ironworkers, Adventurers, and the Industrious Revolution

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Bezis-Selfa has done a good job researching and writing about issues of labor and capital, and especially the use of slaves in the early American iron industry. But his over reliance on outdated secondary sources (such as Bining-1938 and Bruce-1931) and lack of understanding of iron making technology detract from the overall usefulness of the book. While secondary to his thesis, a considerable amount of the history and technology of the early American iron industry that form the framework for his narrative are incorrect or incomplete. His use of end notes without a bibliography makes it difficult to determine his information sources. I also find the term the "Industrious Revolution" to be contrived. Pre-industrial is the more accepted useage.

Notably while he acknowledges the assistance of numerous historians for their help in preparing the manuscript, no archaeometallurgists or iron technology experts were listed. This lack shows in the numerous technological errors in his descriptions of how iron was made and transformed in blast furnaces, bloomeries, and fineries.