Tourists are today urged to visit the 'birthplace of the Industrial Revolution', packaged as part of 'a glorious heritage'. Half a century and more ago the picture was very different. Then the Industrial Revolution was commonly treated as having been a social catastrophe which had brought 'a new barbarism' to the country. Donald Coleman traces the history of the term 'Industrial Revolution' and the uses to which it has been put. Originating in European radical Romanticism, popularised in English by Arnold Toynbee in the 1 880s, it has achieved, with its meaning transformed, the status of potent myth in the nation's history. The book examines industrial revolutions real and imaginary; illuminates some of the activities of businessmen engaged therein; considers attitudes towards the businessmen who have thus come to occupy the historical stage; and discusses the academic study of business history- a subject hardly imaginable without the Industrial Revolution. In the course of investigating these inter-related topics, the volume as a whole offers valuable insights into the ways in which economic history has been written and the concepts which have been invented and deployed in an effort to understand a central event in British history. This book provides an excellent introduction to the subject.

Tourists are today urged to visit the 'birthplace of the Industrial Revolution', packaged as part of 'a glorious heritage'. Half a century and more ago the picture was very different. Then the Industrial Revolution was commonly treated as having been a social catastrophe which had brought 'a new barbarism' to the country. Donald Coleman traces the history of the term 'Industrial Revolution' and the uses to which it has been put. Originating in European radical Romanticism, popularised in English by Arnold Toynbee in the 1 880s, it has achieved, with its meaning transformed, the status of potent myth in the nation's history. The book examines industrial revolutions real and imaginary; illuminates some of the activities of businessmen engaged therein; considers attitudes towards the businessmen who have thus come to occupy the historical stage; and discusses the academic study of business history -- a subject hardly imaginable without the Industrial Revolution. In the course of investigating these inter-related topics, the volume as a whole offers valuable insights into the ways in which economic history has been written and the concepts which have been invented and deployed in an effort to understand a central event in British history. This book provides an excellent introduction to the subject.

The industrial revolution stands out as a key event not simply in British history, but in world history, ushering in as it did a new era of sustained economic prosperity. But what exactly was the 'industrial revolution'? And why did it occur in Britain when it did? Ever since the expression was coined in the 19th century, historians have been debating these questions, and there now exists a large and complex historiography concerned with English industrialisation. This short history of the British Industrial Revolution, aimed at undergraduates, sets out to answer these questions. It will synthesise the latest research on British industrialisation into an exciting and interesting account of the industrial revolution. Deploying clear argument, lively language, and a fresh set of organising themes, this short history revisits one of the most central events in British history in a novel and accessible way. This is an ideal text for undergraduate students studying the Industrial Revolution or 19th Century Britain.

Business Elites and Corporate Governance in France and the UK is a cross-national study of business elites and corporate governance in France and the UK. It examines corporate governance from a comparative standpoint and looks beneath the surface at the exercise of power and authority in two distinct national business systems. It explores key issues concerning business elites, their networks, recruitment and reproduction. It aims to shed light on the mechanisms that govern the stability and regeneration of business elites against the backdrop of an increasingly global economy.

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.

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

With an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses political history, the history of ideas, cultural history and art history, The Victorian World offers a sweeping survey of the world in the nineteenth century. This volume offers a fresh evaluation of Britain and its global presence in the years from the 1830s to the 1900s. It brings together scholars from history, literary studies, art history, historical geography, historical sociology, criminology, economics and the history of law, to explore more than 40 themes central to an understanding of the nature of Victorian society and culture, both in Britain and in the rest of the world. Organised around six core themes – the world order, economy and society, politics, knowledge and belief, and culture – The Victorian World offers thematic essays that consider the interplay of domestic and global dynamics in the formation of Victorian orthodoxies. A further section on ‘Varieties of Victorianism’ offers considerations of the production and reproduction of external versions of Victorian culture, in India, Africa, the United States, the settler colonies and Latin America. These thematic essays are supplemented by a substantial introductory essay, which offers a challenging alternative to traditional interpretations of the chronology and periodisation of the Victorian years. Lavishly illustrated, vivid and accessible, this volume is invaluable reading for all students and scholars of the nineteenth century.

DIVThis remarkable book looks at hundreds of autobiographies penned between 1760 and 1900 to offer an intimate firsthand account of how the Industrial Revolution was experienced by the working class. The Industrial Revolution brought not simply misery and poverty. On the contrary, Griffin shows how it raised incomes, improved literacy, and offered exciting opportunities for political action. For many, this was a period of new, and much valued, sexual and cultural freedom./divDIV /divDIVThis rich personal account focuses on the social impact of the Industrial Revolution, rather than its economic and political histories. In the tradition of best-selling books by Liza Picard, Judith Flanders, and Jerry White, Griffin gets under the skin of the period and creates a cast of colorful characters, including factory workers, miners, shoemakers, carpenters, servants, and farm laborers./div

This book demonstrates how the political economy of mercantilism was not simply a Western invention by various cities and kingdoms during the Renaissance, but was the natural by-product of perpetually limited growth rates and rulers’ relentless pursuits of bullion. It contributes to discussions of the economic history surrounding the so-called “Great Divergence” between East and West, which would consequently lend context and credence to differences of economic thought in the world today. Additionally, it seeks to explain present economic thought as tacitly derived from implicit antique paradigms. This book advances fields of research from numismatics and sigillography to historical materialism and historical political economy. Divided into three parts, Orthodox Mercantilism first examines the political theology (the sovereignty) of the œcumene from the early 11th century. Second, it analyzes its peripheral legislation from the customary laws of newly Christianized dynasties up to the Kormčaja Kniga’s adoption (the Nomokanon) by 13th-century Orthodox dynasties across Eastern Europe. Third, it explores how these dynasties (and their own satellite dynasties) hoarded finite bullion to pay for defense, resulting in the 11–14th-century coinless period across Eastern Europe and Western Eurasia. Appealing to students and scholars alike, this book will be of interest to those studying and researching economic and mercantile history, particularly in the context of Byzantine and Eastern European societies.

The Emergence of Football fuses sports history into mainstream economic, social and cultural history, setting the development of the people’s game against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution. The book challenges conventional histories of nineteenth-century football that surrounded mass games and the public schools and extends the revisionist critique of those histories with the imaginative use of new and original empirical evidence. It outlines the continuing presence of a working-class footballing culture across the century, arguing that the structure of football was a product of industrialisation, urbanisation and population growth that had resulted in a far-reaching restructuring of the class system and urban hierarchies. It was these new hierarchies and class system that gave birth to professional football by the late 1870s. It is essential reading for students of sports studies, economic, social and cultural history, urban and local history, and sociology, as well as a valuable resource for scholars and academics involved in the study of football across the world. This is an absorbing and fascinating read for any of the millions of fans of the game who are interested in the early history of football.