Paperback (Epilogue): The chapters in this volume have indicated that the industrial revolution witnessed considerable innovation in the organisation as well as the finance of industry and commerce; in the knacks and work practices of production as well as in technology; in urbanisation and demographic behaviour as well as in the development and disciplining of labour.
The role of government at both national and local levels was considerably transformed and the dynamism of the economy shifted firmly from agriculture to industry and trade.
Some regions rapidly industrialized, others concentrated on commercial agriculture or stagnated.
The industrial revolution radially affected the lives of women and children as much as those of men; it involved consumption and commerce as much as industry, leisure as much as work, and it involved shifts in motivations, aspirations, ideologies and aesthetics as well as changes in the labour process and in the relations of production.
This volume represents a plea to reintegrate a wider conception of industrial revolution into our analyses of the period. In the process, many continuities will inevitably be uncovered but so will those radical changes in economy and society that make the period such an exciting one to study.
The aim of The Industrial Revolution (1992) is to provide for students, especially at undergraduate level, a number of volumes devoted to major historical issues. After an introduction which discusses the specification and measurement of 'industrial revolution', Part One is devoted to shifts in interpretation which have occurred in the last century and a half followed by a discussion of recent work on macroeconomic indicators, the role of the state, and the place of agriculture in industrialisation. Part Two concentrates upon topics of central importance to our understanding of the period as one of radical socio-economic and political change which justifies the notion of industrial revolution.
About the author (Wikipedia): Pat Hudson is a Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Cardiff. She is noted economic historian of the British industrial revolution who research has been noted for its stress on the wider economic, social and cultural aspects rather than an over-simplistic concentration of the role of individual entrepreneurs and gadgets. She has also researched the textile industry especially wool textiles, proto-industrialisation, regional and local history. Some of her work has also stressed the appropriate use of economic theory for historians and quantitative research method.
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