[Hunt's] focus is the man and his times, in a book that, with its yellowed maps and extensive quotations from ye olde correspondence, is both utterly transporting and extremely cozy.

... engrossing.

Almost everything you need to know about the heroic age of Britain’s Industrial Revolution – its energy, hypocrisies, almost unstoppable curiosity and inventiveness – is neatly parcelled in the life of the one-legged Nonconformist potter who built an international industry from the clay and coal of Staffordshire.

If there was a dark side to Wedgwood, you won’t find it in Hunt’s book. He was certainly a tough competitor with his business rivals, and he sometimes had to muddy his hands in the corrupt politics of his day. Nor was he above playing on snobbery and class, gaining prestige for his wares by placing them in aristocratic and royal homes before selling them to wider markets. But he can hardly be blamed for pulling such levers as were available to him in the social machinery of the time.

... well-informed and attractively written.

Wedgwood’s remarkable story has been told in many biographies over the years. The great contribution of The Radical Potter, Tristram Hunt’s new book, is to place him in the context of the rapid economic and social changes during his lifetime that helped make his success possible..

... a thoroughly researched and sweeping discourse on Britain’s pottery trade, placing it firmly within the rise of upper-class social demands and the transformative economics of the Industrial Revolution.

... well-researched.