Dr. Brian Dolan- Wedgwood (2004)
reviews

"An elegant biography, abundant in historical and cultural detail, of the eighteenth-century pottery magnate. ... This shrewd portrait of a remarkable life also renders with vivid particularity the time and place in which Wedgwood worked his magic. A slice of serious history that's also pretty as a picture." - Kirkus Reviews

"A magesterial portrait." - Publisher's Weekly

"Magnates, moguls, tycoons, entrepreneurs--call them what you will, but they are all people who have achieved great success. ... I would imagine that Josiah Wedgwood would be honored to be so labeled." - Donald Trump

"Brian Dolan puts a human face on one of history's great brand names, revealing Wedgwood as a scientist, inventor, craftsman, traveling salesman, business magnate, enlightened employer, and inspirational survivor of both smallpox and amputation. A highly readable biography by a most talented historian." --Ross King, author of Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling

"Through a compelling narrative, Brian Dolan provides insight into a complex tycoon who was manic in both his experimenting and his empire-building, while always remaining a devoted family man. All the intriguing dimensions are here - personal, business, political, and philanthropic - in what is a magisterial portrait of the visionary genius Josiah Wedgwood."
--Peter Krass, author of Carnegie

"Dolan legitimately admires Wedgwood's achievements as a merchandiser and manufacturer but also acknowledges that the Industrial Revolution looked rather different to his labor force than it did to him. In our own time, remade with equal comprehensiveness by globalization, that's an imporant caveat to keep in mind."
-- Wendy Smith, The Washington Post (full review PDF )

Dolan "gives an intriguing picture into the life of Wedgwood, a pioneering producer and peddler of mass-produced pottery that is now sold worldwide. Dolan's close attention to the archives can be slow going at times, but bear with him. It's those carefully chosen details that bring this era of the Industrial Revolution to life."
-- Kerry Hannon, USA Today (full review PDF )

"Would that Josiah Wedgwood had lived another two or three decades so that Brian Dolan could have written even more about this truly fascinating 18th-century British potter. ... Wedgwood is a marvelously told tale of a true Renaissance man who took clumps of clay and molded them into objects of beauty and culture for the masses. And he made a furtune in the process. Now, that's a potter of vision!"
-- Thomas Brady, Philadelphia Inquirer (full review PDF )

" ... Dolan's exhaustive commitment to his subject is impressive"
--Carmela Ciuraru, Los Angeles Times (full review PDF )

Thanks for Walter Olson, writing in The New York Times Book Review, for the suggestion of a spin-off:
"The illustrations are handsome and pertinent; would there had been more of them. After getting to know the man who turned coffee cups into art, it's hard not to yearn for a coffee-table book."

"Detail by detail Brian Dolan builds up his picture of this fascinating life, which exemplifies so vividly that brief and thrilling moment in history when men suddenly sensed that in technology they had found an 'Open Sesame!' which was going to take them to great things ... There is much incidental information in the book, all of which serves to clarify causes and their effects: the interaction of one trade with another, the knock-on effects between technical development, the shaping of events by wars and climate. ... Brian Dolan's account of him must, I think, be the best that has been written and is unlikely to be bettered."
--Diana Athill, Literary Review, November 2004

"Dolan, a professor at UC San Francisco, has done an excellent job bringing Wedgwood and his times to life without using the boring and pedantic style of most college professors (and many biographers)."
-- Curt Schieier, The Grand Rapids Press, 28 November and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 14 November

"In the engaging biography 'Wedgwood', California scholar Brian Dolan masterfully tells the story of the person and the tycoon, a fascinating figure who wanted to become 'Vase Maker General to the Universe'."
--Robin Michaelson, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 5

Book Information:
Wedgwood: The First Tycoon (New York: Viking, October 7 2004); Josiah Wedgwood: Entrepreneur to the Enlightenment (London: HarperCollins, November 1, 2004). ISBN: 0670033464. 416pp.