Prior to the industrial revolution, status in most societies was based on one thing only: heredity. No matter how much you accomplished - or didn’t - you stayed in the same station of life.
Ye, this isn't really true. Lets take, for example, 18th century Naval officers from the UK:
* Captain Cook - discovered Australia, mapped the Pacific etc. Father was a farmer
* Horatio Nelson - Defeated the French, considered greatest Naval commander of all time. Father was a minister
* Arthur Philip - Commander during American Revolution, lead colonization of Australia. Father was a teacher.
It is a very common misconception that in old society it was impossible to move from the lower classes into the upper classes. The British Empire, the prototypical aristocracy, was largely shaped and developed by people who were raised in the lower classes. This is because the military, navy, their universities (eg. Isaac Newton), and many other parts of government and private societies were strict meritocracies.
The upper classes actually produced a very small number of notable people, outside of royalty (Charles Darwin, Churchill, Brunel (although his grandfather was a French farmer)
(Edit: "America became the first large-scale experiment of a society that could be called a meritocracy." - Citation needed. See above.)
Most of these guys were born and already famous before the steam engine patent - let alone the real industrial boon
The Wikipedia summary isn't wrong, it is just misleading. The inventions and innovations that lead to the industrial revolution were founded in the late 18C, but the real transformation was much later (although it did happen, comparatively, quickly)
It is a bit like saying that the 'Internet era' is from the 1950's, because that is when the integrated circuit was created
The environment of 1700 seems likely to share more characteristics with 1750 than 1600. Whether these people were famous during or _just before_ the IR does not change my point.
Steam engines were invented many times during and before the IR. What allowed the IR to happen was more likely coal, I think.
Comments
Prior to the industrial revolution, status in most societies was based on one thing only: heredity. No matter how much you accomplished - or didn’t - you stayed in the same station of life.
Ye, this isn't really true. Lets take, for example, 18th century Naval officers from the UK:
* Captain Cook - discovered Australia, mapped the Pacific etc. Father was a farmer
* Horatio Nelson - Defeated the French, considered greatest Naval commander of all time. Father was a minister
* Arthur Philip - Commander during American Revolution, lead colonization of Australia. Father was a teacher.
It is a very common misconception that in old society it was impossible to move from the lower classes into the upper classes. The British Empire, the prototypical aristocracy, was largely shaped and developed by people who were raised in the lower classes. This is because the military, navy, their universities (eg. Isaac Newton), and many other parts of government and private societies were strict meritocracies.
The upper classes actually produced a very small number of notable people, outside of royalty (Charles Darwin, Churchill, Brunel (although his grandfather was a French farmer)
(Edit: "America became the first large-scale experiment of a society that could be called a meritocracy." - Citation needed. See above.)
"The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century [...]"
Please excuse my quoting from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
So using 18th century people to illustrate that hereditary factors were not dominant pre-IR is a bit strange.
Most of these guys were born and already famous before the steam engine patent - let alone the real industrial boon
The Wikipedia summary isn't wrong, it is just misleading. The inventions and innovations that lead to the industrial revolution were founded in the late 18C, but the real transformation was much later (although it did happen, comparatively, quickly)
It is a bit like saying that the 'Internet era' is from the 1950's, because that is when the integrated circuit was created
The environment of 1700 seems likely to share more characteristics with 1750 than 1600. Whether these people were famous during or _just before_ the IR does not change my point.
Steam engines were invented many times during and before the IR. What allowed the IR to happen was more likely coal, I think.