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.
Editor's Preface, Jack R. Censer; General Introduction, Lenard R. Berlanstein; Part 1 Rethinking the Industrial Revolution, Lenard R. Berlanstein; Chapter 1 The Present and the Past in the English Industrial Revolution, 1880-1980, David Cannadine; Chapter 2 Mechanization and Hand Labour in Industrializing Britain, Raphael Samuel; Chapter 3 Social Change in Modern Europe: The Big Picture, Charles Tilly; Part 2 Work Experiences and Protest, Lenard R. Berlanstein; Chapter 4 Women's Work and Industrialization, Theresa McBride; Chapter 5 Patterns of Proletarianization, Christopher H. Johnson; Chapter 6 Drink and Industrial Discipline in Nineteenthcentury Germany, James S. Roberts; Part 3 The Making of a Working Class, Lenard R. Berlanstein; Chapter 7 The Limits of Labour Protest, Peter N. Stearns; Chapter 8 Uneven Development, the Autonomy of Politics and the Radicalization of Workers, William H. SewellJr; Chapter 9 On Language, Gender and Working-Class History, Joan Wallach Scott;
