The transformation of consumer desire in the long eighteenth century -- The origins of the industrious revolution -- The industrious revolution : the supply of labor -- The industrious revolution : consumer demand -- The breadwinner-homemaker household -- A second industrious revolution?

Preindustrial businesses: the time of the merchant -- The many paths to industrialization -- British and German businesses during industrialization -- Big and small businesses in industrializing America -- Japanese and Chinese businesses during industrialization -- American, British, and German...

"The industrial revolution transformed the productive power of societies. It did so by vastly increasing the individual productivity, thus delivering whole populations from poverty. In this new account by one of the world's acknowledged authorities the central issue is not simply how the...

"This is a unique account of working-class childhood during the British industrial revolution. Using more than 600 autobiographies written by working men of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Jane Humphries illuminates working-class childhood in contexts untouched by conventional sources...