View source for Luddite

{{Short description|Member of an 1810s English anti-textile-machinery organisation}}
{{For|the musical recording|Luddite (EP)}}
{{Distinguish|Ludites|Lyddite|Lydite|Ludic}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2015}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}

[[File:Luddite.jpg|thumb|''The Leader of the Luddites'', 1812. Hand-coloured [[etching]]]]
The '''Luddites''' were members of a 19th-century movement of English [[textile]] workers who opposed the use of certain types of automated machinery due to concerns relating to worker pay and output quality. They often destroyed the machines in organised raids.<ref name=Conniff /><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-were-the-luddites |title=Who were the Luddites? |publisher=History.com |access-date=2016-12-12 |archive-date=20 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220215250/http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-were-the-luddites |url-status=live }}</ref> Members of the group referred to themselves as Luddites, self-described followers of "[[Ned Ludd]]", a legendary weaver whose name was used as a pseudonym in threatening letters to mill owners and government officials.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book|title = Writings of the Luddites|last = Binfield|first = Kevin|publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press|year = 2004|isbn = 1421416964|pages = xiv|chapter = Foreword}}</ref>

The Luddite movement began in [[Nottingham]], England, and spread to the [[North West England|North West]] and [[Yorkshire]] between 1811 and 1816.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Linton |first=David |date=Fall 1992 |title=The Luddites: How Did They Get That Bad Reputation? |journal=Labor History |volume=33|issue=4 |pages=529–537|doi=10.1080/00236569200890281}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Trials/>

Over time, the term has been used to refer to those [[Criticism of technology|opposed]] to the introduction of new technologies.<ref>{{Cite OED|Luddite (n.), sense 1.b|5449079592|access-date=2024-09-15|date=March 2024}}</ref>

== Etymology ==
The name Luddite ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ʌ|d|aɪ|t}}) occurs in the movement's writings as early as 1811.<ref name="auto"/> The movement utilised the eponym of [[Ned Ludd]], an apocryphal apprentice who allegedly smashed two [[stocking frame]]s in 1779 after being criticised and instructed to change his method. The name often appears as Captain, General, or King Ludd. Different versions of the legends place his residence in [[Anstey, Leicestershire|Anstey]], near Leicester, or [[Sherwood Forest]] like [[Robin Hood]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/politics/g3/ |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=19 August 2011 |title=Power, Politics and Protest &#124; the Luddites |department=Learning Curve |archive-date=10 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410201752/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/politics/g3/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

== History ==

=== Historical precedents ===
The machine-breaking of the Luddites followed from previous outbreaks of sabotage in the English textile industry, especially in the hosiery and woollen trades. Organised action by [[stockinger (occupation)|stockingers]] had occurred at various times since 1675.<ref>{{cite book|last=Binfield|first=Kevin|title=Luddites and Luddism|year=2004|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore and London}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Rude|first=George|title=The Crowd in History: A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and England, 1730–1848|year=2001|publisher=Serif}}</ref><ref name="this" /> In [[Lancashire]], new cotton spinning technologies were met with violent resistance in 1768 and 1779. These new inventions produced textiles faster and cheaper because they could be operated by less-skilled, low-wage labourers.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Merchant |first=Brian |date=2 September 2014 |title=You've Got Luddites All Wrong |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/luddites-definition-wrong-labor-technophobe/ |magazine=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |access-date=13 October 2014 |archive-date=23 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190523172806/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ae379k/luddites-definition-wrong-labor-technophobe |url-status=live }}</ref> These struggles sometimes resulted in government suppression, via Parliamentary acts such as the [[Protection of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1788]].

Periodic uprisings relating to asset prices also occurred in other contexts in the century before Luddism. Irregular rises in [[food prices]] provoked the [[Keelmen]] to riot in the [[port of Tyne]] in 1710<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43320 |title=Historical events – 1685–1782 &#124; Historical Account of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (pp. 47–65) |publisher=British History Online |date=2003-06-22 |access-date=2013-10-04 |archive-date=9 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130209181804/http://british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43320 |url-status=live }}</ref> and tin miners to steal from granaries at [[Falmouth, Cornwall|Falmouth]] in 1727.{{Efn|The Falmouth magistrates reported to the Duke of Newcastle (16 November 1727) that "the unruly tinners" had "broke open and plundered several cellars and granaries of corn." Their report concludes with a comment which suggests that they were not able to understand the rationale of the direct action of the tinners: "The occasion of these outrages was pretended by the rioters to be a scarcity of corn in the county, but this suggestion is probably false, as most of those who carried off the corn gave it away or sold it at a quarter price." PRO, SP 36/4/22.}} There was a rebellion in [[Northumberland]] and [[County Durham|Durham]] in 1740, and an assault on Quaker corn dealers in 1756.

Malcolm L. Thomas argued in his 1970 history ''The Luddites'' that machine-breaking was one of the very few tactics that workers could use to increase pressure on employers, undermine lower-paid competing workers, and create solidarity among workers. "These attacks on machines did not imply any necessary hostility to machinery as such; machinery was just a conveniently exposed target against which an attack could be made."<ref name="this">{{cite book|last=Thomis|first=Malcolm|title=The Luddites: Machine Breaking in Regency England|year=1970|publisher=Shocken}}</ref> Historian [[Eric Hobsbawm]] has called their machine wrecking "[[collective bargaining]] by riot", which had been a tactic used in Britain since the Restoration because manufactories were scattered throughout the country, and that made it impractical to hold large-scale strikes.{{sfn|Hobsbawm|1952|p=59}}<ref name="Autor2003">{{Cite journal |last1=Autor |first1=D. H. |last2=Levy |first2=F. |last3=Murnane |first3=R. J. |date=2003-11-01 |title=The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration |url=http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/569 |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics |language=en |volume=118 |issue=4 |pages=1279–1333 |doi=10.1162/003355303322552801|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100315142837/http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/569 |archive-date=15 March 2010 |hdl=1721.1/64306 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> An agricultural variant of Luddism occurred during the widespread [[Swing Riots]] of 1830 in southern and eastern England, centring on breaking [[threshing machine]]s.<ref name="harrison249">{{Cite book |title=The Common People: A History from the Norman Conquest to the Present |last=Harrison |first=J. F. C. |date=1984 |publisher=Croom Helm |isbn=0709901259 |location=London, Totowa, N.J |pages=249–53 |ol=OL16568504M}}</ref>

=== Peak activity: 1811–1817 ===
{{See also|Barthélemy Thimonnier#Sewing machine riot}}
The Luddite movement emerged during the harsh economic climate of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], which saw a rise in difficult working conditions in the new textile factories paired with decreasing birth rates and a rise in education standards in England and Wales.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=O'Rourke |first=Kevin Hjortshøj |last2=Rahman |first2=Ahmed S. |last3=Taylor |first3=Alan M. |date=2013 |title=Luddites, the industrial revolution, and the demographic transition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42635331 |journal=Journal of Economic Growth |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=373–409 |issn=1381-4338}}</ref> Luddites objected primarily to the rising popularity of automated textile equipment, threatening the jobs and livelihoods of skilled workers as this technology allowed them to be replaced by cheaper and less skilled workers.<ref name="Conniff">{{Cite news |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/ |title=What the Luddites Fought Against |last=Conniff |first=Richard |date=March 2011 |work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |access-date=2016-10-19 |language=en |archive-date=14 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114073322/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=August 2021}}  The movement began in [[Arnold, Nottinghamshire]], on 11 March 1811 and spread rapidly throughout England over the following two years.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Beckett|first1=John|title=Luddites|url=http://www.nottsheritagegateway.org.uk/people/luddites.htm|website=The Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway|publisher=[[Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire]]|access-date=2 March 2015|archive-date=2 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402092454/http://www.nottsheritagegateway.org.uk/people/luddites.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Conniff /> The British economy suffered greatly in 1810 to 1812, especially in terms of high unemployment and inflation. The causes included the high cost of the wars with Napoleon, Napoleon's [[Continental System]] of economic warfare, and [[War of 1812|escalating conflict with the United States.]] The crisis led to widespread protest and violence, but the middle classes and upper classes strongly supported the government, which used the army to suppress all working-class unrest, especially the Luddite movement.<ref>Roger Knight, ''Britain Against Napoleon'' (2013), pp. 410–412</ref><ref>Francois Crouzet, ''Britain Ascendant'' (1990) pp. 277–279</ref>

The Luddites met at night on the [[Moorland|moors]] surrounding industrial towns to practise military-like drills and manoeuvres. Their main areas of operation began in [[Nottinghamshire]] in November 1811, followed by the [[West Riding of Yorkshire]] in early 1812, and then [[Lancashire]] by March 1813. They wrecked specific types of machinery that posed a threat to the particular industrial interests in each region. In the Midlands, these were the "wide" knitting frames used to make cheap and inferior lace articles.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Acemoglu |first1=Daron |last2=Robinson |first2=James A. |title=Why nations fail: the origins of power, prosperity, and poverty |date=2012 |publisher=Crown Publishing |location=New York, NY |isbn=9780307719225 |page=101 |edition=1. |url=https://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/book/why-nations-fail/ |access-date=2 November 2024}}</ref> In the North West, weavers sought to eliminate the steam-powered looms threatening wages in the cotton trade. In Yorkshire, workers opposed the use of shearing frames and gig mills to finish woollen cloth.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Binfield |first=Kevin |title=Writings of the Luddites |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2004 |isbn=1421416964 |pages=34 |chapter=Northwestern Luddism}}</ref>

Many Luddite groups were highly organised and pursued machine-breaking as one of several tools for achieving specific political ends. In addition to the raids, Luddites  coordinated public demonstrations and the mailing of letters to local industrialists and government officials.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Rebels against the future: the Luddites and their war on the Industrial Revolution: lessons for the computer age|last = Sale|first = Kirkpatrick|publisher = Addison-Wesley Publishing Company|year = 1996|isbn = 0201407183|location = Reading|pages = 74–77|chapter = The Luddites: November–December 1811}}</ref> These letters explained their reasons for destroying the machinery and threatened further action if the use of "obnoxious" machines continued.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job|last = Mueller|first = Gavin|publisher = Verso|year = 2021|isbn = 978-1786636775|pages = 20|chapter = The Nights of King Ludd}}</ref> The writings of [[Midlands]] Luddites often justified their demands through the legitimacy of the Company of Framework Knitters, a recognised public body that already openly negotiated with [[Master craftsman|masters]] through named representatives. In [[North West England]], textile workers lacked these long-standing trade institutions and their letters composed an attempt to achieve recognition as a united body of tradespeople. As such, they were more likely to include petitions for governmental reforms, such as increased minimum wages and the cessation of child labor. Northwestern Luddites were also more likely to use radical language linking their movement to that of American and French revolutionaries. In [[Yorkshire]], the letter-writing campaign shifted to more violent threats against local authorities viewed as complicit in the use of offensive machinery to exert greater commercial control over the labour market.

In [[Yorkshire]], the [[Cropper (agricultural worker)|cropper]]s (highly skilled workers who trimmed the [[Nap (fabric)|nap]] from fabric to produce smooth, finished cloth) faced mass unemployment due to the introduction of cropping machines by Enoch Taylor of Marsden.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Marsden History Group |url=https://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/marsden-foundry.php |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=www.marsdenhistory.co.uk |archive-date=18 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240418160416/https://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/marsden-foundry.php |url-status=live }}</ref> This sparked the Luddite movement among the croppers of Yorkshire, who used a hammer dubbed "Enoch" to break the frames of the cropping machines. They called it Enoch to mock Enoch Taylor, and when they broke the frames they purportedly shouted "Enoch made them, and Enoch shall break them."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Enoch the Power Hammer |url=https://www.nigeltyas.co.uk/nigel-tyas-news/post/enoch-the-power-hammer.html |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=www.nigeltyas.co.uk |language=en |archive-date=18 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240418160414/https://www.nigeltyas.co.uk/nigel-tyas-news/post/enoch-the-power-hammer.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Luddites clashed with government troops at [[Burton's Mill]] in [[Middleton, Greater Manchester|Middleton]] and at [[Westhoughton Mill]], both in Lancashire.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Radicalism and Reform in Britain, 1780–1850|last = Dinwiddy|first = J. R.|publisher = Hambledon Press|year = 1992|isbn = 9781852850623|location = London|pages = 371–401|chapter = Luddism and Politics in the Northern Counties|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hI2tAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA371}}</ref> The Luddites and their supporters anonymously sent death threats to, and possibly attacked, magistrates and food merchants. Activists smashed Heathcote's lace making machine in Loughborough in 1816.{{sfn|Sale|1995|p=188}} He and other industrialists had secret chambers constructed in their buildings that could be used as hiding places during an attack.<ref>{{cite news|title=Workmen discover secret chambers|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/4791069.stm|publisher=[[BBC]]|access-date=31 December 2012|archive-date=24 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224043837/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/4791069.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1817 [[Jeremiah Brandreth]], an unemployed Nottingham [[stockinger (occupation)|stockinger]] and probable ex-Luddite, led the [[Pentrich Rising]]. While this was a general uprising unrelated to machinery, it can be viewed as the last major Luddite act.<ref>Summer D. Leibensperger,  "Brandreth, Jeremiah (1790–1817) and the Pentrich Rising". ''The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest'' (2009): 1–2.</ref>

=== Government response ===
12,000 government troops, most of them belonging to [[Militia (United Kingdom)|militia]] or [[Yeomanry Cavalry|yeomanry]] units, were involved in suppression of Luddite activity, which historian [[Eric Hobsbawm]] wrote was a larger number than the army that the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]] led into Portugal in 1808 during the [[Peninsular War]].{{sfn|Hobsbawm|1952|p=58|ps=: "The 12,000 troops deployed against the Luddites greatly exceeded in size the army which Wellington took into the Peninsula in 1808."}}{{efn| Hobsbawm has popularised this comparison and refers to the original statement in [[Frank Ongley Darvall]] (1934) ''Popular Disturbances and Public Order in Regency England'', London, Oxford University Press, p. 260.}} Four Luddites, led by a man named George Mellor, ambushed and assassinated mill owner William Horsfall of Ottiwells Mill in [[Marsden, West Yorkshire]], at [[Crosland Moor]] in [[Huddersfield]]. Horsfall had remarked that he would "Ride up to his saddle in Luddite blood".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGkTDQAAQBAJ&q=Horsfall++%22Ride+up+to+his+saddle+in+Luddite+blood.%22&pg=PT14|title=Grim Almanac of York|last=Sharp|first=Alan|year=2015|publisher=The History Press|isbn=9780750964562|language=en}}</ref> Mellor fired the fatal shot to Horsfall's groin, and all four men were arrested.  One of the men, Benjamin Walker, turned informant, and the other three were hanged.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maureenmitchell/luddites/luddites_william_horsfall_murder.htm|title=Murder of William Horsfall by Luddites, 1812|website=Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com|access-date=23 June 2023|archive-date=2 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102001443/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maureenmitchell/luddites/luddites_william_horsfall_murder.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/William_Horsfall_(1770-1812)|title=William Horsfall (1770–1812) – Huddersfield Exposed: Exploring the History of the Huddersfield Area|website=Huddersfield.exposed|access-date=23 June 2023|archive-date=1 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601020455/https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/William_Horsfall_(1770-1812)|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://ludditebicentenary.blogspot.com/2013/01/8th-january-1812-execution-of-george.html | title=8th January 1813: The execution of George Mellor, William Thorpe & Thomas Smith | date=8 January 2013 | publisher=The Luddite Bicentenary – 1811–1817 | access-date=10 October 2020 | archive-date=19 September 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919154155/http://ludditebicentenary.blogspot.com/2013/01/8th-january-1812-execution-of-george.html | url-status=live }}</ref> [[Lord Byron]] denounced what he considered to be the plight of the working class, the government's inane policies and ruthless repression in the [[House of Lords]] on 27 February 1812:

{{quote|I have been in some of the most oppressed provinces of Turkey; but never, under the most despotic of infidel governments, did I behold such squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return, in the very heart of a Christian country.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1812/feb/27/frame-work-bill#S1V0021P0_18120227_HOL_7|title=Frame Work Bill. (Hansard, 27 February 1812)|website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|access-date=23 June 2023|archive-date=14 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514082629/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1812/feb/27/frame-work-bill#S1V0021P0_18120227_HOL_7|date=27 February 1812|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Government officials sought to suppress the Luddite movement with a mass trial at [[York]] in January 1813, following the attack on Cartwrights Mill at Rawfolds near Cleckheaton. The government charged over 60 men, including Mellor and his companions, with various crimes in connection with Luddite activities. While some of those charged were actual Luddites, many had no connection to the movement. Although the proceedings were legitimate jury trials, many were abandoned due to lack of evidence and 30 men were acquitted. These trials were intended to act as [[show trials]] to deter other Luddites from continuing their activities. The harsh sentences of those found guilty, which included [[execution]] and [[penal transportation]], quickly ended the movement.<ref name=Trials>{{cite web|url=http://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/people/luddites.html#link4 |title=Luddites in Marsden: Trials at York |access-date=12 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326170835/http://www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/people/luddites.html |archive-date=26 March 2012 }}</ref><ref>Elizabeth Gaskell, ''The Life of Charlotte Bronte'', Vol. 1, Ch. 6, for a contemporaneous description of the attack on Cartwright.</ref> Parliament made "machine breaking" (i.e. industrial [[sabotage]]) a [[capital crime]] with the [[Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8adFAAAAcAAJ&dq=%22destruction%22%20%22stocking-frames%22%20parliamentary&pg=PA633 "Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812"] at books.google.com</ref> Lord Byron opposed this legislation, becoming one of the few prominent defenders of the Luddites after the treatment of the defendants at the York trials.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2011/no-1282-june-2011/lord-byron-and-luddites|title=Lord Byron and the Luddites {{!}} The Socialist Party of Great Britain|website=worldsocialism.org|access-date=2016-11-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624121100/http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2011/no-1282-june-2011/lord-byron-and-luddites|archive-date=24 June 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
The Luddites (specifically the croppers, those who operated cropping machinery) are memorialised in the [[Yorkshire]]-area folk song "The Cropper Lads", which has been recorded by artists including [[Lou Killen]] and [[Maddy Prior]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Cropper Lads (Roud -; TYG 62) |url=https://mainlynorfolk.info/louis.killen/songs/thecropperlads.html |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=mainlynorfolk.info |archive-date=18 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240418160415/https://mainlynorfolk.info/louis.killen/songs/thecropperlads.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The croppers were very highly skilled and highly paid before the introduction of cropping machinery, and thus had more to lose and more reason to rebel against the factory owners' use of machinery. Another traditional song which celebrates the Luddites is the song "The Triumph of General Ludd", which was recorded by [[Chumbawamba]] for their 1988 album ''[[English Rebel Songs]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=General Ludd's Triumph |url=https://oursubversivevoice.com/song/12141/ |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=Our Subversive Voice |language=en |archive-date=18 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240418160414/https://oursubversivevoice.com/song/12141/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 19th century, occupations that arose from the growth of trade and shipping in ports, also as "domestic" manufacturers, were notorious for precarious employment prospects. Underemployment was chronic during this period,<ref name="Charles Wilson 1965 p. 344-5">Charles Wilson, ''England's Apprenticeship, 1603–1763'' (1965), pp. 344–345. PRO, SP 36/4/22.</ref> and it was common practice to retain a larger workforce than was typically necessary for insurance against labour shortages in boom times.<ref name="Charles Wilson 1965 p. 344-5" />

Moreover, the organisation of manufacture by merchant capitalists in the textile industry was inherently unstable. While the financiers' capital was still largely invested in raw materials, it was easy to increase commitment when trade was good and almost as easy to cut back when times were bad. Merchant capitalists lacked the incentive of later factory owners, whose capital was invested in buildings and plants, to maintain a steady rate of production and return on fixed capital. The combination of seasonal variations in wage rates and violent short-term fluctuations springing from harvests and war produced periodic outbreaks of violence.<ref name="Charles Wilson 1965 p. 344-5"/>

== Modern usage ==
Nowadays, the term "Luddite" often is used to describe someone who is opposed or resistant to new technologies.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.dictionary.com/browse/luddite| title = Luddite Definition & Meaning| website = Dictionary.com| access-date = 18 June 2020| archive-date = 18 June 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200618154639/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/luddite| url-status = live}}</ref>

In 1956, during a British Parliamentary debate, a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] spokesman said that "organised workers were by no means wedded to a 'Luddite Philosophy'."{{sfn|Sale|1995|p = 205}} By 2006, the term ''[[neo-Luddism]]'' had emerged to describe opposition to many forms of technology.{{sfn|Jones|2006| page = 20 }} According to a manifesto drawn up by the Second Luddite Congress (April 1996; [[Barnesville, Ohio]]), neo-Luddism is "a leaderless movement of passive resistance to consumerism and the increasingly bizarre and frightening technologies of the [[Computer Age]]".<ref name="Sale1997">{{Cite news |title=America's New Luddites |last=Sale |first=Kirkpatrick |date=1997-02-01 |work=[[Le Monde diplomatique]] |url=https://mondediplo.com/1997/02/20luddites |language=en}}</ref>

The term "Luddite fallacy" is used by economists about the fear that [[technological unemployment]] inevitably generates [[structural unemployment]] and is consequently [[Macroeconomics|macroeconomically]] injurious. If a technological innovation reduces necessary labour inputs in a given sector, then the industry-wide cost of production falls, which lowers the competitive price and increases the equilibrium supply point that, theoretically, will require an increase in aggregate labour inputs.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Jerome | first1 = Harry | title = Mechanization in Industry, National Bureau of Economic Research | year = 1934 | url = http://papers.nber.org/books/jero34-1 | pages = 32–35 | access-date = 6 May 2014 | archive-date = 24 February 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170224140043/http://papers.nber.org/books/jero34-1 | url-status = live }}</ref> During the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, the dominant view among economists has been that belief in long-term technological unemployment was indeed a [[fallacy]]. More recently, there has been increased support for the view that the benefits of automation are not equally distributed.<ref name = "sympathy">{{cite news|access-date=14 July 2015|author-link=Paul Krugman|date=2013-06-12|first=Paul|last=Krugman|title=Sympathy for the Luddites|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/opinion/krugman-sympathy-for-the-luddites.html?_r=0|work=[[The New York Times]]|archive-date=28 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150628052259/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/opinion/krugman-sympathy-for-the-luddites.html?_r=0|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Ford|2009|loc= Chpt 3, 'The Luddite Fallacy'}}</ref><ref name = "Death">{{cite web
  |url= http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/robert-skidelsky-revisits-the-luddites--claim-that-automation-depresses-real-wages
  |title= Death to Machines?
  |publisher= [[Project Syndicate]]
  |author= Lord Skidelsky
  |date= 2013-06-12
  |access-date= 14 July 2015
  |author-link= Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky
  |archive-date= 14 July 2015
  |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150714220548/http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/robert-skidelsky-revisits-the-luddites--claim-that-automation-depresses-real-wages
  |url-status= live
  }}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Postdevelopment theory]]
* [[Ted Kaczynski]]
* [[Ruddington#Museums|Ruddington Framework Knitters' Museum]] – features a Luddite gallery
* [[Simple living]]
* [[Swing Riots]]
* [[Technophobia]]
* [[Turner Controversy]] – return to [[pre-industrial]] methods of production

== Explanatory notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
{{sfn whitelist |CITEREFFord2009}}
* {{Ford 2009 The lights in the tunnel}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Hobsbawm |first=E. J. |date=1952 |title=The Machine Breakers |url=http://libcom.org/history/machine-breakers-eric-hobsbawm |journal=Past & Present |language=en |issue=1 |pages=57–70 |doi=10.1093/past/1.1.57 |access-date=19 September 2012 |archive-date=13 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413142226/https://libcom.org/history/machine-breakers-eric-hobsbawm |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}
* {{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Steven E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwPP4pGRAwgC |title=Against technology: from the Luddites to Neo-Luddism |publisher=CRC Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-415-97868-2}}
* {{Cite book|last=Sale|first= Kirkpatrick|title=Rebels against the future: the Luddites and their war on the Industrial Revolution: lessons for the computer age|publisher=Basic Books|year=1995|isbn=0-201-40718-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=56ENAQAAMAAJ}}

== Further reading ==
<!-- To add a new reference, please use the following template: * {{Cite book}}-->
* {{Cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=Gary M. |last2=Tollison |first2=Robert D. |year=1986 |title=Luddism as cartel enforcement |journal=Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE)/Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft |volume=142 |issue=4 |pages=727–738 |jstor=40750927}}
* {{Cite book |last=Archer |first=John E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pb0RzCN-ipMC |title=Social unrest and popular protest in England, 1780–1840 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-521-57656-7 |chapter=Chapter 4: Industrial Protest}}
* {{Cite book |last=Bailey |first=Brian J. |url=https://archive.org/details/ludditerebellion00bail |title=The Luddite Rebellion |publisher=NYU Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-8147-1335-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Darvall |first=F. |title=Popular Disturbances and Public Order in Regency England |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1934}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Dinwiddy |first=John |year=1979 |title=Luddism and politics in the northern counties |journal=Social History |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=33–63|doi=10.1080/03071027908567438 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Fox |first=Nicols |title=Against the Machine: The Hidden Luddite History in Literature, Art, and Individual Lives |publisher=Island Press |year=2003 |isbn=1-55963-860-5}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Grint |first1=Keith |title=The machine at work: technology, work, and organization |last2=Woolgar |first2=Steve |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-7456-0924-9 |chapter=The Luddites: ''Diablo ex Machina'' |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HjijdK2VwWQC&pg=PA39}}
* {{Cite book |last=Haywood |first=Ian |title=Bloody Romanticism |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2006 |location=London |pages=181–222 |chapter=Unruly People: The Spectacular Riot}}
* {{Cite book |last=Horn |first=Jeff |title=Crowd actions in Britain and France from the middle ages to the modern world |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2015 |location=London |pages=165–178 |chapter=Machine-Breaking and the 'Threat from Below' in Great Britain and France during the Early Industrial Revolution}}
* {{Cite book |last=Linebaugh |first=Peter |title=Ned Ludd & Queen Mab: machine-breaking, romanticism, and the several commons of 1811–12 |publisher=PM Press |year=2012}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Linton |first=David |year=1992 |title=The Luddites: How did they get that bad reputation? |journal=Labor History |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=529–537 |doi=10.1080/00236569200890281}}
* {{Cite journal |last=McGaughey |first=Ewan |title=Will Robots Automate Your Job Away? Full Employment, Basic Income, and Economic Democracy |journal=Industrial Law Journal |date=2022 |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=511–559 |doi=10.1093/indlaw/dwab010 |ssrn=3044448|pmc=8344681 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Merchant |first=Brian |title=Blood in the Machine |publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]] |year=2023 |isbn=9780316487740}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Munger |first=Frank |year=1981 |title=Suppression of Popular Gatherings in England, 1800–1830 |url=https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1845&context=fac_articles_chapters |url-status=live |journal=American Journal of Legal History |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=111–140 |doi=10.2307/844630 |jstor=844630 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428181136/https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1845&context=fac_articles_chapters |archive-date=2019-04-28|url-access=subscription }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Navickas |first=Katrina |year=2005 |title=The search for 'general Ludd': The mythology of Luddism |journal=Social History |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=281–295|doi=10.1080/03071020500185406 }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=O'Rourke |first1=Kevin Hjortshøj |last2=Rahman |first2=Ahmed S. |last3=Taylor |first3=Alan M. |year=2013 |title=Luddites, the industrial revolution, and the demographic transition |journal=Journal of Economic Growth |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=373–409 |doi=10.1007/s10887-013-9096-y |jstor=42635331|url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ee3128b7-5741-49a8-9280-934014cc2c96 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Pallas |first=Stephen J. |year=2018 |title='The Hell that Bigots Frame': Queen Mab, Luddism, and the Rhetoric of Working-Class Revolution |journal=Journal for the Study of Radicalism |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=55–80 |doi=10.14321/jstudradi.12.2.0055 |jstor=10.14321/jstudradi.12.2.0055}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Patterson |first=A. Temple |date=April 1948 |title=Luddism, Hampden Clubs, and Trade Unions in Leicestershire, 1816–17 |journal=English Historical Review |volume=63 |issue=247 |pages=170–188 |doi=10.1093/ehr/LXIII.CCXLVII.170 |jstor=556364}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Poitras |first=Geoffrey |year=2020 |title=The Luddite trials: Radical suppression and the administration of criminal justice |url=http://www.sfu.ca/~poitras/JSR_proof_20.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Journal for the Study of Radicalism |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=121–166 |doi=10.14321/jstudradi.14.1.0121 |jstor=10.14321/jstudradi.14.1.0121 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521224841/http://www.sfu.ca/~poitras/JSR_proof_20.pdf |archive-date=21 May 2022}}
* {{Cite news |last=Pynchon |first=Thomas |date=1984-10-28 |title=Is It O.K. to Be a Luddite? |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-luddite.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210329153241/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-luddite.html |archive-date=29 March 2021 |access-date=19 November 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US}}
* {{Cite book |last=Randall |first=Adrian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6P_B2TeiPeYC |title=Before the Luddites: Custom, Community and Machinery in the English Woollen Industry, 1776–1809 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-521-89334-3}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rude |first=George |url=https://archive.org/details/crowdinhistoryst0000rude |title=The crowd in History, 1730–1848 |publisher=Serif |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-897959-47-3 |chapter=Chapter 5, Luddism}}
* {{Cite magazine |last=Stöllinger |first=Roman |date=November 2018 |title=The Luddite rebellion: Past and present |url=https://wiiw.ac.at/monthly-report-no-11-2018-dlp-4699.pdf#page=14 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221219081234/https://wiiw.ac.at/monthly-report-no-11-2018-dlp-4699.pdf#page=14 |archive-date=19 December 2022 |magazine=wiiw Monthly Report |publisher=The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies |pages=6–11}}
* {{Cite book |last=Thomis |first=Malcolm I. |title=The Luddites: Machine-Breaking in Regency England |publisher=Archon Books |year=1970}}
* {{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=E. P. |author-link=E. P. Thompson |url=https://archive.org/details/makingofenglishw0000thom_p8v7 |title=The Making of the English Working Class |publisher=Penguin |year=1968 |isbn=0140210008}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Wasserstrom |first=Jeffrey |year=1987 |title='Civilization' and Its Discontents: The Boxers and Luddites as Heroes and Villains |journal=Theory and Society |pages=675–707 |jstor=657679}}

===Primary sources===
* {{Cite book |last=Binfield |first=Kevin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NG6ABlDQ10MC |title=Writings of the Luddites |publisher=JHU Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-8018-7612-5}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
{{Commons category|Luddism}}
{{Wiktionary|Luddite}}
* [http://ludditebicentenary.blogspot.co.uk Luddite Bicentenary – Comprehensive chronicle of the Luddite uprisings] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214011949/http://ludditebicentenary.blogspot.co.uk/ |date=14 February 2015 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150321205718/http://www.ludditelink.org.uk/index.php The Luddite Link] – Comprehensive historical resources for the original West Yorkshire Luddites, University of Huddersfield
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100609054445/http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/luddite.html ''Luddism and the Neo-Luddite Reaction'' by Martin Ryder, University of Colorado at Denver School of Education]
* [http://www.marxists.org/history/england/combination-laws/index.htm The Luddites and the Combination Acts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060915005851/http://www.marxists.org/history/england/combination-laws/index.htm |date=15 September 2006 }} from the Marxists Internet Archive
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWIyRqn0Gj0 ''The Luddites'' (1988)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191126123340/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWIyRqn0Gj0 |date=26 November 2019 }} – Thames Television drama-documentary about the West Riding Luddites.

{{simple living}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Luddites| ]]
[[Category:1812 in economic history]]
[[Category:1810s in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:History of social movements]]
[[Category:Criticism of science]]
[[Category:Industrial Revolution]]
[[Category:Political pejoratives for people]]
[[Category:History of the textile industry in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Political movements in England]]
[[Category:Agrarian politics]]
[[Category:Anarcho-primitivism]]
[[Category:Technophobia]]
[[Category:Lifestyles]]
[[Category:Eponymous political ideologies]]