How to create our industrial future with inspiration and lessons from the originators of the industrial revolution. Climate change, global disruption, and labor scarcity are forcing us to rethink the underlying principles of industrial society. In The New Lunar Society , David Mindell envisions this new industrialism from the fundamentals, drawing on the eighteenth century when first principles were formed at the founding of the Industrial Revolution. While outlining the new industrialism, he tells the story of the Lunar Society, a group of engineers, scientists, and industrialists who came together to apply the principles of the Enlightenment to industrial processes. Those principles were collaboration, the marriage of practical and scientific knowledge, and the belief that the world could progress through making things. The Lunar Society included pioneers like James Watt, Benjamin Franklin, and Josiah Wedgwood, and their conversations no less than ignited the Industrial Revolution and shaped the founding of the United States. Telling the stories of these makers in parallel with those of our current moment of crisis on multiple fronts, Mindell argues for a new industrialism. He asks: What does industry look like when it strives to optimize for the lowest carbon footprint as well as the greatest profit? When it values resilience as much as efficiency? When it upholds dignified, inclusive, sustainable work? Optimistic but not utopian about our ability to build the world, The New Lunar Society shines a light on how a new generation can reanimate the best ideas of our thinking doer forebears and begin to build a future that is both realistic and human-centered. “Mindell, an engineer and a historian, realizes that innovation requires a combination of knowing and making, mind and hand. Using the British experience in the eighteenth century to better understand our own age, he has written a deeply original and insightful book that once again proves how essential the Enlightenment was to the creation of modern economies.” —Joel Mokyr, Professor of Economics and History, Northwestern University; author of The Enlightened Economy   “We are often told that history is a teacher, but Mindell shows us that its rich complexity might be better thought of as an education system. In working our way through its lessons, we are lucky to have Mindell as our Principal, guiding us through our past to see the way to our technological future.” —Neil Lawrence, DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning, University of Cambridge; author of The Atomic Human   “David Mindell’s New Lunar Society argues compellingly that a thriving industrial base, adept at both product and process innovation, underpins a strong democracy. He elevates Boulton’s steam age Lunar Society for reflection by today’s leaders.” —Jeff Wilke, Chairman, Re:Build Manufacturing, and former CEO, Amazon Worldwide Consumer   “Mindell’s latest work encourages leaders to apply lessons from the Industrial Revolution to today’s global challenges with a timely and inspiring call for a new, sustainable industrialism rooted in innovation and collaboration.”  —Kyle Clark, Founder and CEO, BETA Technologies   “An exciting and provocative book that demonstrates, in comparison with an earlier moment in industrial history, the need for linking a vision of technological possibilities to a broader vision of civic and societal values.” —Suzanne Berger, Institute Professor, MIT; author of Making in America: From Innovation to Market David Mindell is Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing at MIT. He has led or participated in more than 25 oceanographic expeditions, written seven books, and holds 34 patents in RF navigation, autonomous systems, and AI-assisted piloting. He is also Founder and Executive Chair of Humatics, a navigation technology company, and Cofounder of Unless, an investment firm that is catalyzing the next industrial revolution.