Liberty’s Dawn: A People’s History of the Industrial Revolution

It wasn’t all Bleak House and Oliver Twist. According to historian Griffin (A Short History of the British Industrial Revolution), the negative impact of the Industrial Revolution has been grossly exaggerated and misconstrued. Through a close reading of over 300 autobiographies written by English workers from 1760–1900, Griffin unfurls a mostly convincing reinterpretation peopled by empowered workers newly able to carve out enough personal freedom to maintain control over their destinies. The author delves into three realms—work, love (and sex), and culture (education and religion)—to craft a complex picture. Her liberal use of textual excerpts emphasizes and personalizes the effect of this socioeconomic revolution on individuals and families. Men, women, and children all worked, and though the labor wasn’t easy, they saw even difficult industrial jobs as tremendous economic opportunities. Men enjoyed steadier work and correspondingly steadier wages—luxuries mostly unfamiliar to the generation of working men before them—and mass production spurred urbanization and a concomitant coming together of diverse ideas. Many working people sought education for self-improvement and advancement, embraced nonconformist religious denominations to exercise independent choice in spiritual matters, and participated in political movements to push for the rights of the working man. All in all, an admirably intimate and expansive revisionist history. (June)