This volume has three main themes. First, there is the concept of the Industrial Revolution and its main characteristics, and the author defends both the term and the notions behind it against attempts to play down their significance. A particular interest is the comparison of what happened to Britain with similar processes in other European countries. The second theme is the set of problems facing the early entrepreneurs and managers. Their difficulties, as pioneers in the economic as well as the social sphere, are often underrated, and are here explored in detail. Last, there is an emphasis on the characteristic feature of industrialisation as a regional phenomenon, and on the significance of particular regions in the entire process. All three themes have called forth extended debate, in which these essays have played an important part.

The Industrial Revolution remains a defining moment in the economic history of the modern world. But what kind and how much of a revolution was it? And what kind of ?moment? could it have been? These are just some of the larger questions among the many that economic historians continue to debate. Addressing the various interpretations and assumptions that have been attached to the concept of the Industrial Revolution, Joel Mokyr and his four distinguished contributors present and defend their views on essential aspects of the Industrial Revolution. In this revised edition, all chapters?including Mokyr's extensive introductory survey and evaluation of research in this field?are updated to consider arguments and findings advanced since the volume's initial 1993 publication. Like its predecessor, the revised edition of The British Industrial Revolution is an essential book for economic historians and, indeed, for any historian of Great Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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

The Industrial Revolution is a central concept in conventional understandings of the modern world, and as such is a core topic on many history courses. It is therefore difficult for students to see it as anything other than an objective description of a crucial turning-point, yet a generation of social and labour history has revealed the inadequacies of the Industrial Revolution as a way of conceptualizing economic change. This book provides students with access to recent upheavals in scholarly debate by bringing a selection of previously published articles, by leading scholars and teachers, together in one volume, accompanied by explanatory notes. The editor's introduction also provides a synthesis and overview of the topic. As the revision of historical thought is a continual process, this volume seeks to bring the reinterpretation of such debates as working-class formation up to the present by introducing post-structuralist and feminist perspectives.