For a long time, we've been told a lie about the Luddites: that they were people who destroyed technology because they feared it. But the truth is they were people who destroyed technology because it was taking their jobs, replacing skilled labor that ran in a cottage industry with miserable, low-paying factory jobs.

In this book, the author weaves together the history of the Luddites and the Industrial Revolution with the current way automation, the app-based gig economy, and AI are being used to create similar conditions. I really appreciate how Merchant drew these clear correlations throughout the book, rather than making them one clunky post-script at the end the way some history books do.

In order to make the history easier to follow and understand, Merchant utilizes a cast of real-life historic figures at different levels of society, who left behind records that he drew on to craft his narrative. There's even something of a dramatis personae at the beginning, which I imagine would be helpful to flip back to if you were reading with your eyes (I used my ears).

Speaking of the audiobook, the publisher appears to have made the decision to just break the audiobook into 5 parts after the introduction, which means you have these huge chunks of book even though there are natural breaks in the narration when he switches between "characters." Also, the book actually consists of 6 parts, but for some reason 5 and 6 are combined into one giant audiobook chapter.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is fighting against AI, the gig economy, and other ways that big tech wants to ruin our jobs and our lives.