Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. xiv, 253 pages : illustrations, map; 24 cm

Summary

1. The factory question and industrial England, 1830-1860 addresses the continuing controversy over industrialisation. It investigates different perceptions of the 'factory system' either as a threat or as a promise, and the contested meanings of waged work in industry. Making use of a great variety of sources, such as sermons, medical treatises, fictional and visual representations, Robert Gray places the languages of debate in their cultural contexts, paying particular attention to the shifting constructions of class and gender in the rhetoric of reform, and the ambiguities and tensions inherent in 'protective' legislation. He then relates patterns of conflict over factory legislation to the features of specific industrial towns. The combination of regional, cultural and textual analysis makes this book a coherent and original contribution to the study of industrial Britain in the nineteenth century.

Subject

1. 1800-1899
2. Factory system > Great Britain > History > 19th century
3. Industrialization > Great Britain > History > 19th century
4. Factory system
5. Industrialization
6. Sozialreform
7. Arbeitsbeziehungen
8. Industrialisierung
9. Fabrieken
10. Industrialisatie
11. Arbeiders
12. Industries > Great Britain > History > 19th century
13. Great Britain
14. Großbritannien

Genre/Form

1. History

Contents

1. pt. 1. Voices in a debate, c. 1830-1850. 1. Factory slavery. 2. Humanitarian opinion and rhetorics of reform. 3. Popular common sense, official enquiry and the state. 4. The responsibilities of employers. 5. The factory imagined -- pt. 2. Factory regulation, c. 1840-1860. 6. Enforcement, resistance and compliance. 7. The ten-hour day. 8. A reformed factory system?

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-248) and index.