{"product_id":"the-romantic-machine-utopian-science-and-technology-after-napoleon-9780226812205","title":"The Romantic Machine: Utopian Science and Technology after Napoleon","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the years immediately following Napoleons defeat  French thinkers in all fields set their minds to the problem of how to recover from the long upheavals that had been set into motion by the French Revolution. Many challenged the Enlightenments emphasis on mechanics and questioned the rising power of machines  seeking a return to the organic unity of an earlier age and triggering the artistic and philosophical movement of romanticism. Previous scholars have viewed romanticism and industrialization in opposition  but in this groundbreaking volume John Tresch reveals how thoroughly entwined science and the arts were in early nineteenth-century France and how they worked together to unite a fractured society.  Focusing on a set of celebrated technologies  including steam engines  electromagnetic and geophysical instruments  early photography  and mass-scale printing  Tresch looks at how new conceptions of energy  instrumentality  and association fueled such diverse developments as fantastic literature  popular astronomy  grand opera  positivism  utopian socialism  and the Revolution of 1848. He shows that those who attempted to fuse organicism and mechanism in various ways  including Alexander von Humboldt and Auguste Comte  charted a road not taken that resonates today.  Essential reading for historians of science  intellectual and cultural historians of Europe  and literary and art historians  The Romantic Machine is poised to profoundly alter our understanding of the scientific and cultural landscape of the early nineteenth century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651543228469,"sku":"ByrdShop_0226812200","price":65.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780226812205.jpg?v=1781835569","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-romantic-machine-utopian-science-and-technology-after-napoleon-9780226812205","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}