Uploaded June 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
In the 18th and early 19th century industrialisation was synonymous with progress - its damaging effects weren’t widely understood until much later in the 19th and 20th centuries. But West Midlands poet Anna Seward was an early critic of the impact of industry on our landscape and our air. Over 100 years ago she was challenging accepted narratives by using the term pollution in the way we understand it today. In this new @historywmfilm, Dr Malcolm Dick, Director of the Centre for West Midlands History, explores the different ways that writers, artists and observers portrayed the industrial revolution and considers their attitudes to economic change.
In the 18th and early 19th century industrialisation was synonymous with progress - its damaging effects weren’t widely understood until much later in the 19th and 20th centuries. But West Midlands poet Anna Seward was an early critic of the impact of industry on our landscape and our air. Over 100 years ago she was challenging accepted narratives by using the term pollution in the way we understand it today. In this new @historywmfilm, Dr Malcolm Dick, Director of the Centre for West Midlands History, explores the different ways that writers, artists and observers portrayed the industrial revolution and considers their attitudes to economic change.
