Was the Industrial Revolution Necessary? (Hardcover)

The Industrial Revolution is one of the most enduring and studied areas of economic history. This text takes an innovative look at this much discussed subject in order to stimulate interest and elicit new responses. It studies: the way the classical economists viewed natural resources as a constraint on rapid and sustained growth; how the Industrial Revolution might have appeared when looking forwards from the Middle Ages rather than the usual retrospective view; what can be expected from growth rate calculations that have a substantially subjective basis; what contribution can be made to the living standard debated from an understanding of income distribution within the family; and what has been gained from these new explorations.