The books in this section are usually hardcover and in decent shape, though we'll sometimes offer hard-to-find books in lesser condition at a reduced price. Though we often put images of the book with their original dust jackets, the copies here won't always (or even often) have them. If that is important to you, please call ahead or say so in the order comments!
Late in the 18th century, England maintained her monopoly in the textile industry by refusing to allow the sale of new, labor-saving machinery, or even the plans for such machinery, abroad, especially to the newly formed American republic. In 1789, however, a young Englishman named Samuel Slater came to Rhode Island and performed an astounding feat: by hand, he built every intricate part of the carding and spinning machines of America's first wholly automated spinning mill, and he did it all from memory. As the author, F. N. Monjo, notes, Slater's achievement was not only extraordinary in itself, but was a highly significant milestone in American history, for the young man brought with him from England nothing less than the beginnings, in this country, of the Industrial Revolution.
How this energetic and ambitious young man performed his prodigious feat, how his early failures only spurred him on with greater determination to succeed, and how he finally achieved success, are told with the skill and insight that have distinguished all of F. N. Monjo's previous books of historical fiction for young readers. Finely detailed drawings by Laszlo Kubinyi capture the spirit of a story that typifies the energy, the ambition, and the genius that spurred the growth of a young America.
—from the dust jacket
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