The Industrial Revolution - by William J Ashworth (Paperback)

About the Book

"The British Industrial Revolution has long been seen as the spark for modern, global industrialization and sustained economic growth. Indeed the origins of economic history, as a discipline, lie in 19th-century European and North American attempts to understand the foundation of this process. In this book, William J. Ashworth questions some of the orthodoxies concerning the history of the industrial revolution and offers a deep and detailed reassessment of the subject that focuses on the State and its role in the development of key British manufactures. In particular, he explores the role of State regulation and protectionism in nurturing Britain's negligible early manufacturing base. Taking a long view, from the mid 17th century through to the 19th century, the analysis weaves together a vast range of factors to provide one of the fullest analyses of the industrial revolution, and one that places it firmly within a global context, showing that the Industrial Revolution was merely a short moment within a much larger and longer global trajectory. This book is an important intervention in the debates surrounding modern industrial history will be essential reading for anyone interested in global and comparative economic history and the history of globalization."--Cover page 4

Book Synopsis

The British Industrial Revolution has long been seen as the spark for modern, global industrialization and sustained economic growth. Indeed the origins of economic history, as a discipline, lie in 19th-century European and North American attempts to understand the foundation of this process.

In this book, William J. Ashworth questions some of the orthodoxies concerning the history of the industrial revolution and offers a deep and detailed reassessment of the subject that focuses on the State and its role in the development of key British manufactures. In particular, he explores the role of State regulation and protectionism in nurturing Britain's negligible early manufacturing base. Taking a long view, from the mid 17th century through to the 19th century, the analysis weaves together a vast range of factors to provide one of the fullest analyses of the industrial revolution, and one that places it firmly within a global context, showing that the Industrial Revolution was merely a short moment within a much larger and longer global trajectory. This book is an important intervention in the debates surrounding modern industrial history will be essential reading for anyone interested in global and comparative economic history and the history of globalization.

Review Quotes

"This is an excellent book, ideal for lively debates in graduate seminars. It combines impressive research with a convincing argument that expands the chronological and contextual boundaries traditionally associated with the Industrial Revolution. It is a welcome intervention in the historiography." --Journal of Modern History

"The author demonstrates convincingly that state policy, driven by the increasing demands for state revenue, played a critical role in determining Britain's industrial turn ... Ashworth's The Industrial Revolution should be required reading for anyone who wishes to understand industrialization and the role of the state more clearly. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." --CHOICE

"This refreshing book is a welcome antidote to those histories of the Industrial Revolution written during the Cold War ... This is a major study in a different mould, which provides a new understanding of the Industrial Revolution and the role and dynamics of the state that lay behind it." --History Today

"This is a brilliant, daring, and thoroughly researched book. Its originality rests on Ashworth's remarkable capacity to link commercial and political history to the history of science in the making of the industrial revolution. Ashworth calls into question the claim that a unique scientific culture underpinned Britain's early industrial ascendancy. Moreover, he emphasizes the role of the British state and its industrial policies rather than "free markets" in providing an effective context for industrial change. In doing so, he knits together commercial expansion, the protectionist and regulatory practices of the state, and the transformation of British technology in a highly compelling manner." --Leonard Rosenband, Utah State University, USA

"Every decade or so a book comes out that forces historians to reinterpret fundamentally Britain's Industrial Revolution. This is such a book. Ashworth combines deep and even dense scholarship with fearless and sweeping interpretation, and though he is not the first to focus on the period after the Glorious Revolution, instead of prioritizing finance, commerce, or consumption, he argues that it was Britain's interventionist state and associated mercantilist controls that boosted Britain's productivity and created her manufacturing pre-eminence. It follows that, far from creating the industrial revolution, Adam Smith's market theory and free trade political economy were only possible because of it. All in all, a tour de force." --Boyd Hilton, University of Cambridge, UK

"Historians have long debated the nature of the British Industrial Revolution, and their debates have invariably had profound implications for the way we view the present. Every so often, a book comes along that reframes the terms of this debate. The Industrial Revolution: The State, Knowledge and Global Trade is such a book. Ashworth's narrative combines vast synthesis with profound research. Marshaling an enormous range of secondary source material, and interrogating that historiography with his own deep archival knowledge, Ashworth succeeds in producing that rare effect: a historical gestalt shift. Those who read and digest this book will come away with a radically new perspective." --Andre Wakefield, Pitzer College, USA

About the Author

William J. Ashworth is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Liverpool, UK. He is the author of Customs and Excise: Trade, Production and Consumption in England, 1640-1845 (2003).