A people's history of the Industrial Revolution

314 Pages·2013·24.594 MB·English

by  Griffin, Emma

LIBERTY’S DAWN
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EMMA GRIFFIN
LIBERTY’S
DAWN
 A
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A PEOPLE’S HISTORY
of the
INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
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Copyright © 2013 Emma Griffin
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form
(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and
except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers.
For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact:
U.S. Office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.com
Europe Office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.co.uk
Set in Adobe Caslon Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd
Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Griffin, Emma.
Liberty’s dawn: a people’s history of the Industrial Revolution/Emma Griffin.
pages cm
ISBN978-0-300-15180-0 (hardback)
1.  Industrial revolution—Great Britain.  2.  Great Britain—Social conditions.  3.  Great
Britain—Economic conditions.  I. Title.
HC253.G75 2013
330.941’07—dc23
2012050618
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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For David, Benedict and Anna
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An ample theme: the intense interests, passions, and strategy that
throb through the commonest lives.
—Thomas Hardy, The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy, ed.
Michael Millgate (London, 1884), p. 158
The most remarkable century ever known in the history of the World,
for progress in Education, inventions, Engineering, Electricity, Farming,
everything tending to the betterment of the Nation and the Welfare of
the People and making life worth living.
—Richard Cook, p. 26, Lincoln Reference Library
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction: ‘A Simple Naritive’ 1
PART I Earning a living
21
2 Men at Work 23
3 Suffer Little Children 57
4 Women, Work and the Cares of Home 84
PART II Love
107
5 A Brand New Wife and an Empty Pocket 109
6 Naughty Tricks on the Bed 134
PART III Culture
163
7 Education 165
8 Gospel Times 186
9 Sons of Freedom 212
10 Conclusion 241
Notes 248
Bibliography 281
Index 296
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Acknowledgements
any friends and colleagues have been kind enough to offer advice
M
and criticism on this project at various stages. I would like to thank
Silvia Evangelisti, Tim Hitchcock, Jane Humphries, Gareth Stedman
Jones and Leigh Shaw- Taylor for discussing this project. I am particularly
grateful to Gregory Claeys, David Craig, Christopher Ferguson, John
Hatcher, Richard Huzzey, Jo Innes, Steve King, Peter Mandler, Sarah
Pearsall, Heather Savigny, Anne Secord, Patrick Wallis and Andy Wood
for reading and commenting on work in progress. Carolyn Steedman let
me read her work on Joseph Woolley and that and the communications
that followed have been of immense value. Robert Poole has helped me out
with queries about Samuel Bamford, and Christopher Ferguson has set me
straight on points of detail concerning James Carter. I am grateful to all for
countless corrections and for helping me to improve my argument and
expression in significant ways.
I have had the opportunity to present ideas to seminar audiences at the
Cambridge Group for Population History; the Local Population Studies
Society; Robinson College, Cambridge; Southampton University; Gonville
and Caius College, Cambridge; the Institute of Historical Research,
London; All Souls College, Oxford; and St Anne’s College, Oxford. I must
thank the organisers of these events for their invitations and the audiences
for invaluable criticism, advice and encouragement. What follows is
certainly the better for its engagement with so many critical listeners.
The actual completion of this book was made possible only by a research
fellowship from the Arts and Humanity Research Council and a year’s
study leave from the University of East Anglia. My thanks are due to both
institutions for these much valued periods of research leave.
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