The Birth of Industrial Britain 1750-1850

The Industrial Revolution had a profound and lasting effect on socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Britain.The Birth of Industrial Britain examines the impact of early industrialisation on British society in the century before 1850, coinciding with Britain’s transition from a late pre-industrial economy to one based on industrialisation and urbanisation.This fully revised and updated second edition provides a comprehensive range of pedagogical material to support the text, including a Glossary of terms, people and parliamentary acts, new primary source documents and a brand new Chronology and ‘Who’s Who’ section. The Birth of Industrial Britain provides an essential up-to-date synthesis of the impact of the Industrial Revolution on British society for students at all levels.

PART ONE: Introduction1. THE BIRTH OF INDUSTRIAL BRITAINPART TWO: ANALYSIS2. WORK AND LEISUREAgricultureDomestic Industry and the FactoryWomen’s WorkChild LabourLegislation on Labour PracticesLeisure and Recreation3. LIVING AND HEALTH STANDARDSThe Demographic ContextHousing and the EnvironmentReal WagesRegional and Occupational Wage VariationsFemale and Child Labour, Family Budgets and EntitlementsHeight and Health4. RELIGION AND SOCIETYThe Church of EnglandThe Rise of EvangelicalismMethodism and Society5. POPULAR EDUCATIONElementary SchoolsSunday SchoolsVoluntary Schools and Monitorial EducationState Provision for SchoolsFactory SchoolsPoor Law SchoolsLiteracy and the CurriculumSocial Control and Elementary EducationAdult Education6. THE OLD AND NEW POOR LAWSThe Operation of the Old Poor LawThe Old Poor Law under Pressure, 1793–1832Changing Views on the Old Poor LawThe Royal Commission on the Poor Law, 1832The Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834The Implementation of the New Poor LawThe Poor Law in Scotland7. POPULAR PROTESTGrain Riots and the Moral Economy of the CrowdWilkes and LibertyRevolutionary Protest?The LudditesFrom Luddism to the Reform Bill RiotsChartism8. CRIME, JUSTICE AND PUNISHMENTThe Operation of the LawProsecutionEnforcing the LawPhysical PunishmentsConvict TransportationPrisonsPART three: assessment9. CONCLUSIONPART FOUR: DOCUMENTS1. New Lanark, A model factory, 1784–912. Occupations in 18513. Richard Oastler on child labour in Yorkshire Mills4. Festivals, holidays and local communities 5. Two family budgets, 17946. Pauperism and public health, 18427. Annual leverage price of British wheat per quarter, 1801–518. Average weekly wages in some industrial, 1849–519. Religion and class, 184910. The visitation of Chesterfield, 175111. A Methodist class meeting, c.182212. Samuel Bamford on Sunday schools13. Work and discipline in the monitorial school, 181014. A view of workhouse education, 183815. Address at the opening of the London mechanics’ institution, 10 February 182416. The duties of an assistant overseer of the poor, 183217. Settlement examination and removal order, Wiltshire, 176618. The Speenhamland decision, 6 May 179519. A pauper letter of 182620. The principle of ‘less eligibility’ 21. A Cornish bread riot, 1773 22. Parliament against trade unionism, 1799 23. A warning from Ned Ludd, 181224. The Peterloo Massacre, 181925. The ‘Swing’ protests in Norfolk26. The Chartist land plan 27. Chartism and a trial for sedition28. Attitudes towards the Game Laws29. Old Bailey proceedings, 176430. The state of the prisons in England and Wales, 1777ReferencesFurther Reading

Kenneth Morgan is Professor of History at Brunel University and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His books include Bristol and the Atlantic Trade in the Eighteenth Century (1993) and Slavery and the British Empire (2007).