The Radical Potter: The Life and Times of Josiah Wedgwood

by Tristram Hunt Narrated by Julian Elfer

Overview

From one of Britain's leading historians and the director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, a scintillating biography of Josiah Wedgwood, the celebrated eighteenth-century potter, entrepreneur, and abolitionist



Wedgwood's pottery, such as his celebrated light-blue jasperware, is famous worldwide. Jane Austen bought it and wrote of it in her novels; Empress Catherine II of Russia ordered hundreds of pieces for her palace. But the life of Josiah Wedgwood is far richer than just his accomplishments in ceramics. He was a leader of the Industrial Revolution, a pioneering businessman, a cultural tastemaker, and a tireless scientific experimenter whose inventions made him a fellow of the Royal Society. He was also an ardent abolitionist, whose Emancipation Badge medallion-depicting an enslaved African and inscribed "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?"-became the most popular symbol of the antislavery movement on both sides of the Atlantic. And he did it all in the face of chronic disability and relentless pain: a childhood bout with smallpox eventually led to the amputation of his right leg.



Drawing on a rich array of letters, journals, and historical documents, The Radical Potter brings us the story of a singular man, his dazzling contributions to design and innovation, and his remarkable global impact.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Utterly transporting and extremely cozy. . . As dishy a biography about dishes as can be imagined . . . One of the book’s many pleasures is its meticulous catalog of the china-buying public’s tastes, some whimsical and others bizarre or sinister.”
—The New York Times

“Easily the best account of that multifaceted genius.”
—The Times Literary Supplement

“Brisk and highly readable . . . A fine new biography.”
—The Times (UK)

“Hunt performs the important task of telling the great potter’s story clearly and accessibly. . . . Wedgwood the man should be as famous as Wedgwood the brand.”
—The Observer

“Fabulously unputdownable . . . In parts it reads like a thriller.”
—The Telegraph

“Impassioned, wide-ranging . . . Hunt’s sympathetic, engaged and finely written biography makes it clear that Wedgwood was a one-off, and a genius.”
—The Spectator

“Superb . . . delicious, meticulously researched, wide-ranging but never long-winded.”
—Daily Mail

“Wedgwood’s remarkable story has been told in many biographies over the years. The great contribution of The Radical Potter is to place him in the context of the rapid economic and social changes during his lifetime that helped make his success possible.”
—Financial Times

“Hunt is exquisitely alive to all the contradictions in Wedgwood’s achievements. . . . A rich portrait of the charismatic but contradictory man who made Georgian Britain the most stylish country in the world.”
—Mail on Sunday

“One of the achievements of Tristram Hunt’s biography is to bring into view the commercial and moral instincts of the man behind the powerhouse. . . . Wedgwood emerges from this book as a man of voracious interest in the world. Canny and determined, he had both strong beliefs and the adaptability that marks any great innovator.”
—Literary Review

“A captivating portrait of a remarkably innovative man.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“This is a remarkable and impassioned book. Josiah Wedgwood innovated across boundaries of technology and art and taste, commerce and scientific enquiry, and Tristram Hunt makes the powerful case for rediscovering his humane entrepreneurial spirit. The Radical Potter brings Wedgwood’s protean energy alive for a new generation and I loved it.”
—Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes

Library Journal

11/01/2021

In this new biography, historian Hunt (director, Victoria & Albert Museum; Cities of Empire) chronicles the life of Josiah Wedgwood (1730–95), the Briton who created the Wedgwood ceramics company—a brand famous for its commercial success and reputation for quality. Born into a family of potters whose company did well but didn't always have tremendous success, Wedgwood soon struck out on his own to manufacture ceramics in Staffordshire. With his love of experimentation and his gift for leveraging high-placed connections, Wedgwood, along with business partner Thomas Bentley, grew the company into a commercial success whose fine earthenware, stoneware, and eventually porcelain was purchased by English and Russian royalty. Hunt also explores Wedgwood's nonconformist political sympathies, his membership in various scientific societies, and his role in spreading British national pride by making cameos of war heroes and propagandistic pottery that commemorated naval victories. Hunt argues that Wedgwood ceramics' success is owed to its founder's solid commercial sense and gift for creating desirable pieces. VERDICT A bit dry in places but will likely appeal to academics, people in the decorative arts, and history buffs who enjoy biographies that include a solid amount of cultural background.—Stacy Shaw, Denver

Kirkus Reviews

2021-08-18
A biography of the English potter whose last name is a byword for fine china.

In this well-researched portrait, Hunt, the director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, explores the life and times of Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795). Following his father’s death, Josiah entered the family pottery trade as an apprentice to his eldest brother. After contracting smallpox, Wedgwood was no longer able to throw clay, so he began focusing on the business side of the company. With the Industrial Revolution came an explosion in the production of consumer goods, particularly tea, and the demand for teapots, cups, and saucers “would provide a perfect spur for the British ceramics industry as it sought to edge Chinese porcelain off the tea table.” Sure that the market for white stone pottery had become saturated, Wedgwood began experimenting with new colors of clay and glazes. His brother was averse to taking risks, and after arguing over the matter, they parted ways, after which Wedgwood went on to create his own empire. As Hunt notes, Wedgwood was “a defining figure of his age,” comparing him to Steve Jobs today. Not only was he radical in his designs, but he was also radical in his politics. Wedgwood was a member of the free-thinking Lunar Society, a group of like-minded men devoted to science and literature. Having “faith in the possibilities of progress,” among his beliefs was the value of vaccinations. Showing solidarity for the leaders of the American Revolution, in 1790, he designed a tea caddy depicting George Washington on one side and a Continental Army soldier on the other. Despite his business benefiting from “the network of aristocratic families whose fortunes were made, or bolstered by, plantation profits,” he was a devoted abolitionist. Even though British consumerism was fueled by the slave trade, he actively campaigned against slavery. As Hunt notes, the purpose of his biography is to help people understand the centrality of Wedgwood in the transformation of Britain. In this, he succeeds.

A captivating portrait of a remarkably innovative man.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175325110
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	04/26/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos