Human Documents Of The Industrial Revolution In Britain

First Published in 2005. So many books have been written on the Industrial Revolution in Britain that it may be thought that there is hardly room for another. The present volume is an attempt to go some way towards filling what must surely appear to be a somewhat surprising gap in the literature. Its aim and purpose is to enable the men and women—and, let it be said, the children and young people—who lived in and through the Industrial Revolution in this country and who had their part, large or small, in its development and helped to give it direction and impetus, to describe their experiences in their own words. All the documents quoted are original documents, prepared and written and set down in print when the Revolution was actually going on.

This fascinating collection presents industrialization as a total historical process involving the destruction of one world simultaneously with the creation of another. Divided into two sections, it deals with elements of life such as the organization of labour, the health of the nation, rural and industrial societies, and poverty. The first section (The Expanding Economy) outlines the process by which economic growth took place and the second (The Social Impact) shows the impact this growth had on the society which both promoted and resisted it.

First Published in 2005. So many books have been written on the Industrial Revolution in Britain that it may be thought that there is hardly room for another. The present volume is an attempt to go some way towards filling what must surely appear to be a somewhat surprising gap in the literature. Its aim and purpose is to enable the men and women—and, let it be said, the children and young people—who lived in and through the Industrial Revolution in this country and who had their part, large or small, in its development and helped to give it direction and impetus, to describe their experiences in their own words. All the documents quoted are original documents, prepared and written and set down in print when the Revolution was actually going on.

This important new book endeavors to explain the industrial revolution throughout the British Isles.

This text is a wide-ranging survey of the principal economic and social aspects of the first Industrial Revolution.