Olympic gymnast Simone Biles is the latest among high-profile people who have taken a momentary step back in their careers to focus on their mental health. The acknowledgements of the book pay homage to a “motley assemblage of [Marxist] intellectual production” including “homegrown theoreticians, hobbyist auto-didacts, zine-writing worker-militants, roving antinomian bohemians, and, yes, its share of university professors”.

The British economy suffered greatly in 1810 to 1812, especially in terms of high unemployment and inflation. JI have my own frustrations with some of the automation discourse as it has this kind of imaginary horizon, either we’re really close to, or somewhat close, a point where everything’s going to change. If you look at a successful movement, it takes a lot of different ingredients and people who are well positioned within certain kinds of firms, who have a lot of information about how processes run, how the companies are organized. As I streak towards seventy, more body parts bark loudly (arthritis in my hands, which don't like the wet cold up here), and I do my level best to put feelers into the dense soil of my new state. This is addressing what can happen if and when we see what is being forced to crack open, and what we can make of the sacred mess that our lives always are (it's life, after all).Perhaps we have, or still are, identified with someone we admire, but don't yet realize that we've outgrown their influence. The construction of a mythos, tied to a collective subject, is part of what has made the Luddite struggle a common turn of phrase 200 years after the fact.

But the movement lived on in the underground, bolstered by a powerful mythology and its storied confrontation with the detested state.

That can only come with time and patience, and being open, soft and curious about how life presents itself. Mill and factory owners took to shooting protesters and eventually the movement was suppressed by legal and military force, which included execution and penal transportation of accused and convicted Luddites. The writing is cogent and engaging, full of thought-provoking concepts and inspirational histories, making it a crucial resource for contemporary workers. Hemant is also a best selling author and advocate for Responsible Innovation, with his latest book Intended Consequences being named a Forbes Top Ten Tech Book of 2022. Here, Hobsbawm suggests the most important element of the Luddites: his analysis reorients the discussion away from the movement’s quixotic outcome and toward an emphasis on class composition.