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The Industrial Revolution, 1760-1830
T.S. ASHTON (With a new Preface and Bibliography by Paz HUDSON), 1997
Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press
pp. xiv + 139, L7.99 (paper)
This edition of Ashton's celebrated book is to mark 50 years since its first publication in 1948 in Oxford's Home University series, which aimed to introduce the wider public to the fruits of historical scholarship. It was written at the beginning of a period when debate on the social impact of industrial change was seen as part of the way to understand the post-war world and Ashton, like a handful of historians at the time, was determined to make his writing accessible. Hence the survivability of the piece, which has been the first introduction to the industrial revolution for more than one generation of students. It was brief; it was lucid; and it was written with enthusiasm and commitment. It was also written with the confidence of not a single footnote in sight. It has long been a starting point for debate and discussion and a treasure-trove of ideas.
The fascination of re-reading something which one first encountered four decades ago is to test how far one's...