Autorentext

Roderick Floud has taught modern British history in the UK and the USA; his recent research has used information on human height and weight to explore changes in living standards and he is one of the founders of the sub-discipline of anthropometric history, summed up in The Changing Body (Cambridge University Press, 2011) which has been widely praised. He wrote the first textbook of quantitative methods for historians and has edited all four editions of The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain. Roderick has also written extensively on higher education policy and received a knighthood for services to higher education. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and an Academician of the Social Sciences. He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States and is currently Chair of the Social Sciences Committee of the European Science Foundation. He has recently embarked on a new research study of the economic history of British gardening. Jane Humphries is Professor of Economic History at Oxford University where she teaches economic and social history at both graduate and undergraduate levels. Her research has ranged across many issues to do with growth and development. She has also published extensively on gender, the family and the history of women's work. Her recent Ranki prize-winning monograph, Childhood and Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution, involves a bold and innovative use of working-class memoir, studied both quantitatively and qualitatively, a methodology that she is developing further in her current study of women and girls' experiences of industrialization. She presented the recent BBC4 documentary, 'The Children Who Built Victorian Britain', which was based on her work. Professor Humphries is a Fellow of All Souls College, an Academician of the Social Sciences and a Fellow of the British Academy.

Klappentext

A new edition of the leading textbook on the economic history of Britain since industrialization. Combining the expertise of more than thirty leading historians and economists, Volume 1 tracks Britain's economic history in the period ranging from 1700 to 1870 from industrialisation to global trade and empire. Each chapter provides a clear guide to the major controversies in the field and students are shown how to connect historical evidence with economic theory and apply quantitative methods. New approaches are proposed to classic issues such as the causes and consequences of industrialisation, the role of institutions and the state, and the transition from an organic to an inorganic economy, as well as introducing new issues such as globalisation, convergence and divergence, the role of science, technology and invention, and the growth of consumerism. Throughout the volume, British experience is set within an international context and its performance benchmarked against its global competitors.

Inhalt

1. The British Industrial Revolution in a European mirror Brian A'Hearn; 2. Population geography and occupational structure Tony Wrigley and Leigh Shaw Taylor; 3. Agriculture Joyce Burnette; 4. Health, nutrition and education David Meredith and Deborah Oxley; 5. Regions Nigel Goose; 6. Labour markets and training/apprenticeship Patrick Wallis; 7. Population and social mobility Greg Clark and Neil Cummins; 8. Consumption Sara Horrell; 9. An age of progress Joel Mokyr; 10. Technology Bob Allen; 11. Finance Anne Murphy; 12. Government and the economy Julian Hoppit; 13. Transport including shipping Dan Bogart; 14. Trade and empire Nuala Zahedieh; 15. Economic thought and ideology Roger Backhouse and Keith Tribe; 16. Legacy of the early start Knick Harley.