Towns, Regions and Industries: Urban and Industrial Change in the Midlands, C.1700-1840

When he coined the phrase in 1884, Arnold Toynbee saw the industrial revolution as the beginning of the modern age, marking a unique turning point in British economic and social history. The old order had been suddenly, dramatically and irrevocably swept away and technological innovation had transformed all aspects of society. However, this interpretation of the processes of industrialisation overlooks a more subtle, macro-economic, gradualist understanding of industrialisation. Specifically, it ignores the importance of geography as a cause and outcome of historical change, occuring through space as well as time and thus fails to see English industrialisation as a spatially uneven process. Concentrating on the Midlands, this book, drawing on a wealth of original research by an eminent collection of scholars, seeks to develop a fresh understanding of the complex range of urban industrial activity taking place in England during the 18th and 19th centuries. Focusing on the concomitant process of urbanisation, it explains how regional urban systems both shaped and responded to processes of industrialisation and how urban systems influenced growth and raised the potential for development in particular locales. Examining a variety of Midland communities, from the new coalfield towns to established industrial centres, to historic country villages, the book develops a systematic analysis of themes central to the structure and geography of urban and industrial change, focusing on the service sector, transport networks and the role of women in manufacturing and business. The book concludes with a broadening out of its geographical and conceptual horizons, placing the urban, industrial and regional development of the Midlands within a national and international frramework, to underline the differences and similarities between other towns, regions and industries