What Was the Industrial Revolution?
From Greg Clark (2001), “The Secret History of the Industrial Revolution”: The modest productivity growth rates of the Industrial Revolution owed mostly to productivity gains in one sector, textile manufacture. It was accidents of demand, demography, and trade that allowed innovations in this sector to have a much bigger impact than previous innovations of similar magnitude in terms of [aggregate economy-wide] productivity gains…. The southern two thirds of England saw almost no growth in output per capita or productivity growth in the Industrial Revolution…. Other places in Europe in the years 1200 to 1760 saw similar episodes of productivity growth that were as substantial as those in England from 1760 to 1860. Thus between 1550 and 1650 the Netherlands saw significant productivity advance. The appearance that the Industrial Revolution in England represented a decisive break from the past is largely a product of the unusual demographic experience…
The phrase ‘Industrial Revolution’ is applied to a period from roughly 1750 to 1900, and refers to the massive social and economic upheavals attendant upon the shift from a primarily agricultural economy to a manufacturing one. It was preceded by a revolution in agriculture, with the invention of the Tull seed drill that expedited planting; the enclosure movement, in which large landowners enclosed previously common grounds for their own farming use; and the discovery that rotating crops meant that allowing land to lie fallow periodically was no longer necessary. Many former farm workers were forced off the land and into the cities by these developments. Inventions in the textile industry are seen as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The ‘spinning jenny’, the ‘flying shuttle’ and the steam engine to drive them , led to vast increases in the speed with which cotton could be spun into thread and the thread woven into fabric.
Industrial Revolution term usually applied to the social and economic changes that mark the transition from a stable agricultural and commercial society to a modern industrial society relying on complex machinery rather than tools. It is used historically to refer primarily to the period in British history from the middle of the 18th cent. to the middle of the 19th cent.
As you define it, students fill in a graphic organizer. Why England? Eight Causes: Students fill in a graphic organizer. David Letterman Top Ten Reasons why England was the first to industrialize. The 400-pound Gorilla England: The first country to undergo the Industrial Revolution. The Results Short-term and long-range consequences. Cause or Effect? Distinguish between the causes and results. The Transformation of Society What was life like before and after the Industrial Revolution? The Great Debate Resolved, the Industrial Revolution was great! Valley Girls / Boyz in the Back Soliciting Reactions: England was the first country to industrialize. Life is like a Rock Group Examine from 5 viewpoints: The Industrial Revolution in England. The Industrial Rev spread rapidly To the U.S., Germany, and Japan. The Victorian Age Homework on the Internet: Victorian England. The ABCs of the Industrial Revolution Recall terms Can you talk like a factory worker? Define terms CHANGES IN TECHNOLOGY I
