“Emma Griffin gives a new and powerful voice to the men and women
whose blood and sweat greased the wheels of the Industrial
Revolution” (Tim Hitchcock, author of Down and Out in
Eighteenth-Century London). This “provocative study” looks at
hundreds of autobiographies penned between 1760 and 1900 to offer an
intimate firsthand account of how the Industrial Revolution was
experienced by the working class (The New Yorker). The era didn’t
just bring about misery and poverty. On the contrary, Emma Griffin
shows how it raised incomes, improved literacy, and offered exciting
opportunities for political action. For many, this was a period of
new, and much valued, sexual and cultural freedom. This rich
personal account focuses on the social impact of the Industrial
Revolution, rather than its economic and political histories. In the
tradition of bestselling books by Liza Picard, Judith Flanders, and
Jerry White, Griffin gets under the skin of the period and creates a
cast of colorful characters, including factory workers, miners,
shoemakers, carpenters, servants, and farm laborers. “Through the
‘messy tales’ of more than 350 working-class lives, Emma Griffin
arrives at an upbeat interpretation of the Industrial Revolution most
of us would hardly recognize. It is quite enthralling.” —The Oldie
magazine “A triumph, achieved in fewer than 250 gracefully
written pages. They persuasively purvey Griffin’s historical
conviction. She is intimate with her audience, wooing it and teasing
it along the way.” —The Times Literary Supplement “An
admirably intimate and expansive revisionist history.” —Publishers
Weekly
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780300194814
Publisert
2014
Utgiver
Vendor
Yale University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter