SOURCE: Fox, Nicols. “The Frame Breakers.” In Against the Machine: The Hidden Luddite Tradition in Literature, Art, and Individual Lives, pp. 24-40. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2002.

In the following essay, Fox discusses the historical context of the Luddite revolt.

The word Luddite is newly trendy. It finds its way into articles and essays at the elite edge of media consumption and is flung as a stylish insult at holdouts against this or that innovation or technology. It is usually meant as a lighthearted taunt of those who refuse or are unable to keep up with what is commonly referred to as progress. Applied to oneself, it is often a form of denial—as in, “I'm no Luddite,” or, more often, faintly apologetic, as in “I'm no Luddite, but …” (a phrase that goes just before the admission that some technology or innovation is disliked or has been spurned...