Literary theme analysis, by a book like {foo}
Books about Industrialization
The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
A family's struggle to survive the Great Depression, their journey in search of a new life.
The narrative begins just after Tom Joad is paroled from McAlester prison , where he had been incarcerated after being convicted of homicide in self-defense. While hitchhiking to his home near ... (Wikipedia)
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan
Exploration of the modern food chain, examining the impact of food choices on our health and the environment.
What should we have for dinner? The question has confronted us since man discovered fire, but according to Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Botany of Desire , how we answer it today, at ... (Goodreads)
Mary Barton
by Elizabeth Gaskell
Social injustice and class divisions explored through the lens of a mill worker’s family.
The novel begins in Manchester, where we are introduced to the Bartons and the Wilsons, two working-class families. John Barton is a questioner of the distribution of wealth and the relations between ... (Wikipedia)
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
by Erik Larson
True story of a serial killer who used the 1893 World's Fair as a hunting ground.
The book is set in Chicago in 1893, interweaving the true tales of Daniel Burnham , the architect behind the 1893 World's Fair , and H. H. Holmes , a serial killer who lured his victims to their ... (Wikipedia)
The Lorax
by Dr. Seuss
A story of environmental stewardship and warning of the consequences of greed.
A young unnamed boy living in a polluted area visits a strange isolated man called the Once-ler on the Street of the Lifted Lorax. The boy pays the Once-ler fifteen cents, a nail, and the shell of a ... (Wikipedia)
The Jungle
by Upton Sinclair
An expose of the brutal working conditions in the early 20th century meatpacking industry.
Jurgis Rudkus marries his fifteen-year-old sweetheart, Ona Lukoszaite, in a joyous traditional Lithuanian wedding feast. They and their extended family have recently immigrated to Chicago due to ... (Wikipedia)
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women
by Kate Moore
Uncovering the untold story of female factory workers poisoned by radium paint in 1920s America.
A New York Times , USA Today , Wall Street Journal , and Amazon Charts Bestseller! For fans of Hidden Figures, comes the incredible true story of the women heroes who were exposed to radium in ... (Barnes & Noble)
Germinal
by Émile Zola
Depicts the harsh conditions of miners in 19th century France, a story of hope and revolution.
The novel's central character is Étienne Lantier, previously seen in, L'Assommoir, (1877), and originally to have been the central character in Zola's "murder on the trains" thriller, La Bête ... (Wikipedia)
The Alienist
by Caleb Carr
A gripping murder-mystery set in 19th century New York, exposing the dark underbelly of the city.
Narrated from the first-person perspective of John Moore, a crime reporter for, The New York Times, , the novel begins on January 8, 1919, the day that Theodore Roosevelt is buried. Moore has dinner ... (Wikipedia)
How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
by Steven Johnson
Tracing the history of inventions from steam engines to the Internet, showing how they shaped the modern world.
From the New York Times–bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From and Everything Bad Is Good for You, a new look at the power and legacy of great ideas. In this illustrated history, Steven ... (Goodreads)
Desert Solitaire
by Edward Abbey
A personal account of a season spent as a park ranger in the American wilderness.
First published in 1968, Desert Solitaire is one of Edward Abbey’s most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing. Written while Abbey was working as a ... (Goodreads)
Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson
Expose of the environmental damage caused by the widespread use of chemical pesticides.
Silent Spring is an environmental science book. The book documents the adverse environmental effects caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading ... (Goodreads)
Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-69
by Stephen E. Ambrose
Exploring the lives of the men who braved the odds to complete the first Transcontinental Railroad.
Nothing Like It in the World gives the account of an unprecedented feat of engineering, vision, and courage. It is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad—the investors who ... (Goodreads)
Thunderstruck
by Erik Larson
Fascinating true story of the invention of the wireless and its effect on two men's lives.
The interwoven stories of two men whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal cases of all time - Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator ... (Goodreads)
Hard Times
by Charles Dickens
A grim tale of a Victorian industrial city, highlighting its struggles of poverty, injustice and strife.
"My satire is against those who see figures and averages, and nothing else," proclaimed Charles Dickens in explaining the theme of this classic novel. Published in 1854, the story concerns one Thomas ... (Goodreads)
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
by David McCullough
Historical account of the construction of the Panama Canal, and the struggles of those who built it.
On December 31, 1999, after nearly a century of rule, the United States officially ceded ownership of the Panama Canal to the nation of Panama. That nation did not exist when, in the mid-19th ... (Goodreads)
Raising Steam
by Terry Pratchett
An industrial revolution is sparked in a magical world, with consequences that must be faced.
To the consternation of the patrician, Lord Vetinari, a new invention has arrived in Ankh-Morpork - a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all the elements: earth, air, ... (Goodreads)
Locomotive
by Brian Floca
A journey on the transcontinental railroad, from Omaha to Sacramento, in the 1860s. The sights, sounds, and people encountered along the way.
It is the summer of 1869, and trains, crews, and family are traveling together, riding America's brand-new transcontinental railroad. These pages come alive with the details of the trip and the ... (Goodreads)
Dombey and Son
by Charles Dickens
A tale of loss, hardship, and redemption as a man learns to value family and relationships.
The story concerns Paul Dombey, the wealthy owner of the shipping company of the book's title, whose dream is to have a son to continue his business. The book begins when his son is born and Dombey's ... (Wikipedia)
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
by T.J. Stiles
The biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the self-made American tycoon who revolutionized transportation and amassed a vast fortune.
A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism. Founder of a dynasty, builder of the original Grand Central, creator of an ... (Goodreads)
North and South
by Elizabeth Gaskell
A tale of two contrasting worlds, exploring the divisions of the industrial revolution.
Nineteen-year-old Margaret Hale has lived for almost 10 years in London with her cousin Edith and her wealthy Aunt Shaw, but when Edith marries Captain Lennox, Margaret happily returns home to the ... (Wikipedia)
The Last Days of Night
by Graham Moore
In 19th century New York City, a lawyer battles a powerful inventor in a fight over patents and the future of electricity.
NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLER • ,“A world of invention and skulduggery, populated by the likes of Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla.”—Erik Larson, , ,“A model of superior historical fiction . . . an ... (Barnes & Noble)
The One-Straw Revolution
by Masanobu Fukuoka
A revolutionary approach to farming that emphasizes natural processes and minimal intervention.
Fukuoka demonstrates how the way we look at farming influences the way we look at health, the school, nature, nutrition, spiritual health and life itself. He joins the healing of the land to the ... (Goodreads)
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
by Ron Chernow
Biography of the influential business magnate, chronicling his journey from poverty to riches.
John D. Rockefeller, Sr.–history's first billionaire and the patriarch of America's most famous dynasty--is an icon whose true nature has eluded three generations of historians. Now Ron Chernow, the ... (Goodreads)
The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
by David McCullough
An in-depth account of the construction of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.
Published on the fortieth anniversary of its initial publication, this edition of the classic book contains a new Preface by David McCullough, “one of our most gifted living writers” (,The Washington ... (Goodreads)
American Rust
by Philipp Meyer
The poverty stricken town of Buell and its inhabitants struggle to survive in a post-industrial America.
Isaac English : Nineteen year-old protagonist of American Rust. A recent high school graduate, who, despite his academic potential, does not attend college and has little hope for leaving his ... (Wikipedia)
How Green Was My Valley
by Richard Llewellyn
A Welsh family struggles with the destruction of their ancestral home and a changing way of life.
The novel is set in South Wales during the reign of Queen Victoria . It tells the story of the Morgans, a respectable mining family of the South Wales Valleys , through the eyes of one of the sons, ... (Wikipedia)
The Shepherd's Life: A People's History of the Lake District
by James Rebanks
A chronicle of life in the Lake District of England, exploring the traditional way of life of shepherds.
Some people's lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks' isn't. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, he and his family have lived and worked in and ... (Goodreads)
Manhattan Transfer
by John Dos Passos
A kaleidoscopic portrayal of New York City in the early 20th century, following the lives of various characters as they navigate the city's social and economic landscape.
The novel tells the stories, primarily, of four people living in Manhattan from the 1890s to the late 1920s. The stories are presented in a fragmented, contrasting way, often juxtaposing them to ... (Wikipedia)
The Road to Wigan Pier
by George Orwell
Journey of social discovery, examining the struggles of working class life in 1930s England.
A searing account of George Orwell’s experiences of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire, The Road to Wigan Pier is a brilliant and bitter polemic that ... (Goodreads)
Skin Tight
by Carl Hiaasen
A man's exploration of revenge and justice against a powerful industrialist.
Dr. Rudy Graveline, M.D., the director of the prestigious Whispering Palms Surgery Center in Bal Harbour , Florida , is a complete fraud who has never been trained or certified in cosmetic surgery . ... (Wikipedia)
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America
by David von Drehle
The tragic story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, which led to significant changes in workplace safety regulations.
Triangle is a poignantly detailed account of the 1911 disaster that horrified the country and changed the course of twentieth-century politics and labor relations. On March 25, 1911, as workers were ... (Goodreads)
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