The Essay

In the heart of the Industrial Revolution in Shropshire, Christine Finn proposes that being 'luddite' is no bad thing: far from closing their eyes to progress, the 19th century workers who protested against industrialisation by destroying mechanical looms were prescient about the consequences of the mechanical age. She examines whether the luddites of today - those who refuse to embrace the ever newer, ever smaller technologies on offer - are similarly prescient.