In Brian Merchant's acclaimed account of the Luddite rebellion it is now 1812 and textile workers continue to protest their displacement by machines in the name of General Ludd. Meanwhile, they find an unlikely ally. Hugo Speer reads.

In the first two decades of the nineteenth century, the cloth trade was at the forefront of the industrial revolution. As machines were brought in traditional skills, acquired by cloth workers over years of hard graft, became obsolete. Working men and women were left without the means to feed their families, and without purpose or pride in their identities as workers.

Meanwhile, around them they could see that a handful of entrepreneurs, the first tech titans, were accumulating wealth by replacing them with machines. The response was the Luddites.

Blood in the Machine draws on a number of primary sources, as well as historical accounts based on interviews recorded later on in the nineteenth century with those who participated in and had first hand knowledge of the rebellion.

In his book, Brian Merchant finds parallels between technology's impact on today's workforce and the first time machines replaced the jobs done by human beings.

Brian Merchant is the technology columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and author of the bestseller, The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone. His writing appears in the New York Times, Wired, The Atlantic and Harper's Magazine. He is also the founder of Gizmodo's Automaton project examining AI and the future of work.

Hugo Speer known for playing DI David Bradford in London Kills, Captain Treville in The Musketeers and Guy in The Full Monty. He also plays DCI Stone in the acclaimed Radio 4 series, Stone.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard Show less