Who were the Luddites? Their legacy ripples through politics, cultural commentary and literature (Brian Lewis, August 5, 2026, The Conversation)
When the English cartoonist Charles Williams depicted a veterinarian and a blacksmith violently attacking dandies on bicycles for undermining traditional horse-drawn transportation in 1819, the blacksmith’s smashing with a mallet was a clear reference to the spasm of machine-wrecking earlier in the decade.
Williams’s caricature came within a few years of the mass outbreak in Britain when the terms Luddism and Luddite became commonplace.
To be fair, even God objected to our moving past mere gathering.