Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World

　　我們生活在工廠製造的世界中：300年來，現代生活建立在工廠生產的效率和技術的進步之上。但是，被威廉‧布雷克稱之為「黑暗撒旦」的工廠，多數消費者無從知曉這些地方的運作及其員工的經歷。過去兩個世紀，許多工廠如霍姆斯泰德、胭脂河、富士康等，都以其產生的勞動剝削和階級鬥爭聞名於世，更不用提從工業革命至今，工廠生產造成的巨量環境破壞。



　　著名歷史學家、《American Empire》作者Joshua Freeman以工廠的演變映襯出世人對工業化與社會變遷的美夢與夢魘。他從工業革命的起點–英國紡織廠開始，到二十世紀美國、東歐和蘇聯的大型鋼鐵及汽車廠，以及時下在中國與越南的巨大運動鞋場、玩具工廠與手機廠，回顧工廠發展史。



　　榮光與黑暗並存的工廠發展史



　　巨型工廠引發了一場改變人類生活和環境的革命。Freeman從18世紀第一家與骯髒和痛苦畫上等號的工廠開始講起，到理想主義如何被利潤取代。工廠中除了有不斷降低工資提高工時的剝削者，也有透過改善環境以吸引勞工的先驅。他也引述馬克思、恩格斯、狄更斯、漢彌爾頓、亨利福特、史達林等評論家和捍衛者來追蹤工廠和社會進步的論點。Freeman並記載工會與勞工權益團體的抗爭，取得工作日縮短、童工法、保障勞工團體等。



　　工廠生態的探究、記實與再現



　　Freeman也探討了工廠如何成為文學與藝術家作品中的靈感或諷刺對象。他在Charles Sheeler、Margaret Bourke-White、卓别林、狄亞哥•里維拉與Edward Burtynsky的作品中檢視了工廠之於現代人的代表性。



　　現代人必須瞭解的脈絡與方向



　　本書講述了從工業革命到現在的全球工業的宏大歷史。這是一項關於工廠與運作它們的人們的權威工作。它對工廠如何塑造我們的社會和我們現在面臨的挑戰提供了一個精闢的視角。



　　「偉大傑作...帶領我們從蘭開夏郡到底特律、從狼堡到新胡塔、從大邁哈萊到深圳的巨型工廠旋風之旅，Freeman列舉了這形式特殊的組織生產之興起與傳播。Behemoth是一本非凡卓越的書，為過去兩個世紀的全球史提供了無數的深刻見解。」–《棉花帝國：資本主義全球化的過去與未來》作者斯溫‧貝克特(Sven Becker)



　　「對於現代主義的夢想如何常常變成誘騙數百萬工人並使得整個社會墮落的心曠神怡、道德洞察力的報導。Joshua B. Freeman寫下了最大膽、最挑釁的歷史。」–《The Retail Revolution》作者Nelson Lichtenstein

We live in a factory-made world: modern life is built on three centuries of advances in factory production, efficiency, and technology. But giant factories have also fueled our fears about the future since their beginnings, when William Blake called them ＂dark Satanic mills.＂ Many factories that operated over the last two centuries--such as Homestead, River Rouge, and Foxconn--were known for the labor exploitation and class warfare they engendered, not to mention the environmental devastation caused by factory production from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution up to today.

In a major work of scholarship that is also wonderfully accessible, celebrated historian Joshua B. Freeman tells the story of the factory and examines how it has reflected both our dreams and our nightmares of industrialization and social change. He whisks readers from the textile mills in England that powered the Industrial Revolution and the factory towns of New England to the colossal steel and car plants of twentieth-century America, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union and on to today’s behemoths making sneakers, toys, and cellphones in China and Vietnam.

The giant factory, Freeman shows, led a revolution that transformed human life and the environment. He traces arguments about factories and social progress through such critics and champions as Marx and Engels, Charles Dickens, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Ford, and Joseph Stalin. He chronicles protests against standard industry practices from unions and workers’ rights groups that led to shortened workdays, child labor laws, protection for organized labor, and much more.

In Behemoth, Freeman also explores how factories became objects of great wonder that both inspired and horrified artists and writers in their time. He examines representations of factories in the work of Charles Sheeler, Margaret Bourke-White, Charlie Chaplin, Diego Rivera, and Edward Burtynsky.

Behemoth tells the grand story of global industry from the Industrial Revolution to the present. It is a magisterial work on factories and the people whose labor made them run. And it offers a piercing perspective on how factories have shaped our societies and the challenges we face now.