Reconstructing the Industrial Revolution: analyses, perceptions and conceptions of Britain’s precocious transition to Europe’s first industrial society

Riello, Giorgio and O'Brien, Patrick (2004) Reconstructing the Industrial Revolution: analyses, perceptions and conceptions of Britain’s precocious transition to Europe’s first industrial society. Economic History Working Papers (84/04). Department of Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

The Industrial Revolution continues to be analysed by economic historians deploying the conceptual vocabularies of modern social science, particularly economics. Their approach which gives priority to the elaboration of causes and processes of evolution is far too often and superficially contrasted with post-modern forms of social and cultural history with their aspirations to recover the meanings of the Revolution for those who lived through its turmoil and for ‘witnesses’ from the mainland who visited the offshore economy between 1815-48. Our purpose is to demonstrate how three distinct reconstructions of the Revolution are only apparently in conflict and above all that a contextualised analysis of observations of travellers from the mainland and the United States provides several clear insights into Britain’s famous economic transformation.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL:	http://www2.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/workingPaper...
Additional Information:	© 2004 Giorgio Riello & Patrick K. O’Brien
Divisions:	Economic History
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D901 Europe (General) H Social Sciences > HG Finance D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD2329 Industrialization D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
Date Deposited:	29 Jan 2009 17:58
Last Modified:	15 Sep 2023 22:57
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/22337

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