Customer Reviews

Mill

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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Mill is, simply put, remarkably well crafted. In it, David Macaulay gives us a brief history of the beginnings of the textile industry in America, walks us through the planning and construction of four successively more complex mills, lavishly illustrates the buildings, the machines and their power sources and, at the same time, manages to thoroughly convince us that we would never want to work in one.

This last trick is subtle and, to my knowledge, doesn't appear in any of the other books in this series. From Cathedral, City and, to a lesser extent, Castle, you get the distinct feeling that these were great and noble projects that you would have loved to have been a part of. You get this sense too from Mill, but the heady rush that comes with the idea of building something from the ground up is tempered by small, fictional diary entries that betray the harshness of life for those who worked in the mills after their completion.

Mill is a strong contender for a place in your personal and permanent library. It is beautifully illustrated, historically grounded, thoroughly researched, accented with social commentary and, most importantly, it is an enjoyable, absorbing read.

This is an important book. Written for children, it can be used just as effectively by adults to comprehend the beginnings of the industrial revolution in the United States. Learn and see how men tamed our rivers and how men, women and children were swallowed up in these great monuments to progress.

The illustrations are remakable. David Macaulay deftly describes and illustrates how the technology that made America a world industrial power came to the young new country and how American ingenuity improved it and made the nation into a world class economic juggernaut.

The author is a superb story teller, and anyone who would like to visualize the nature of mills and to understand the profound impact of this technology on our country should read it.

I highly recommend this great children's book to everyone.

A wonderful story that takes the reader through the life and times of an infant small village mill into the mature years of a 20th century factory-mill. Excellent illustrations, and fun storyline that allows the reader to become involved with the life of the mill. I loved it.

Macaulay is an illustrator, architect, engineer, historian, economist, anthropologist and story-teller. He puts all of this knowledge and skill into Mill. It is a totally one-of-a-kind book that does not easily fall under any traditional category. It is often labeled as a "kids' book" because it has pictures and is relatively short. But very little of the educational content would be considered common knowledge for adults. It reads like a history text-book, a technical manual, and a novel all in one.

It is an epic, multi-generational story of a fictional New England town that is born out of the textile boom of the Industrial Revolution. You follow the cotton-milling and cloth-weaving operations of this town and its mills as they grow and expand, incorporate new technology, and endure the tides of fortune. Along the way, you get to learn all the details of the planning, the machinery, the construction, read excerpts from the characters' journals and watch the town slowly grow and change over time. In the end, this short book feels like a monumental journey and it will leave you not only satisfied but smarter too.

I've read most of Macaulay's books and this is probably the best.

There's showing, and then there's telling. David Macaulay has mastered the art of show-and-tell - his books put knowledge and creativity right in your hands, then pull it apart and let you see how it works. Macaulay has a gift.

While his picture books are unusual and interesting, his technology books (Castle, Cathedral, How it Works) are unmatched.

This book shows four (fictional) textile mills at a single village in Rhode Island, as the technology advanced over the centuries. Everything from the architecture of the buildings to the design of the power systems to how the buildings are lit and heated - it's all in there. Some great (fictional) journal outtakes show the years progressing. History - science - personalities - inventiveness... it's all in this book.

My 9-year-old son absolutely loves David Macaulay's Castle, Pyramid, Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction, and now Mill. This book focuses on the textile industry and illustrates and gives the history of progressively more advanced mills, as well as the history of the industry in general.

The black and white illustrations are remarkably compelling and very detailed. I'm not a particularly mechanical person, but I find them relatively easy to understand. These along with the mechanical descriptions have proved quite compelling to my son.

This book also has a small number of sample diary entries, giving a more personal feel to what life was like working in a textile mill. These entries, along with the main text descriptions, are very engaging.

David Macaulay's books are wonderful additions to any family library, but I would especially recommend them for homeschoolers. For independent reading, I'd recommend at least a 5th grade reading level, but those not yet at that point may benefit from the illustrations and some portions of the text.

I bought this for my son, who has always been intrigued by construction projects, but I have also enjoyed it quite a bit and learned a lot from it. One point I would make is that it is not quite as simple as some of Macaulay's other books, such as Castle and Cathedral. Whereas those books are easy for even a four-year-old to comprehend, Mill has a more involved story-line and will require more explaining from a parent. I would say that ideally it should be for older children for that reason. But, that doesn't change the fact that it's a great book, and of course the illustrations are amazing.

David Macaulay has produced a great resource for history teachers with his lushly illustrated book MILL. Within the first few pages he draws the reader into the fascinating story of the birth of the industrial revolution in America. The story begins in the present with the discovery of a Roman coin on the dig site of an old textile mill along the bank of a river in central Rhode Island and continues with a step by step explanation of how and why a textile mill is built and run. Adults as well as children will enjoy this book with it's engaging story and detailed illustrations. We are using this book to teach visitors to our historic two hundred year old mill how a mill is built and how it affected the birth of industry which built our country and made it the greatest nation in the world.

If this is your first book of Davids, keep reading. If it isn't then you already know. A valuable book both in storytelling and construction.

This is a fascinating account of the life and times of a millwright and his trade. Details on choosing a location for the mill, building the mill, and how the machinery to grind the grain worked puts the reader in the position as the millwright himself. This book is written as part history book, part informational, and even part journal, using fictional diary entries to give the reader a sense of the everyday life of a miller. A touch of drama is thrown in as we read of mill-workers who are injured and/or killed while on the job -
"1864 August 15: Mary McDonnell was drawn into the machinery by the belting today and lost her right arm below the elbow. I fear the heat will not help her recovery
August 17: Mary McDonnell died today, the infection having spread too quickly from her injury. I will send her wages on to her mother in Southbridge."
This book is supposedly written for children - I first discovered it in an elementary school library - but I find it more suitable for adults. I have found that many history books geared toward the younger set can have information not found in the more adult-oriented books. The Mill by David Macaulay is one of them. The illustrations themselves are very well done, and the details of running a mill is probably the best I have seen thus far.
Great reading about the lifeblood of a 19th century community.