Economic History 95

trial Revolution at present available.579 However, clearly \ve
need a lot more work on every sort of problem, and we are
getting it. Studies of particular areas, as John's on South
Wales and Rowe's on Cornwall, have their uses,580 but the
major work is being done with respect to single themes and
single industries. A French attempt to describe English society
in the age of industrialization rests on the secondary literature,
lacks annotation, and contributes nothing fresh.581

A great debate, which unfortunately at once slid sideways
into the bog of moral indignation, has arisen over the effects of
industrialization on the living standard of the labouring clas-
ses. An earlier generation judged this mainly from the extra-
ordinarily ill-analysed evidence of parliamentary committees
and was sure that everything was going rapidly downhill. The
view was attacked by Glapham and Ashton, with the ideologi-
cal support of Hayek.582 Taylor, too, in a thoughtful article,
took the line that industrialization generally brought ameliora-
tion.583 All this finally led to a sharp exchange between Hart-
well (representing the new views which are dubbed politically
conservative) and Hobsbawm (a progressively oriented defen-
der of the old notions), which has extracted, especially from
the latter, rather more heat than light.584 It may perhaps be

579 David S. Landes, The Unbound Prometheus: technological change and
industrial development in Western Europe from 1750 to the present. CUP:
1969. Pp. ix, 566.

580 A. H. John, The Industrial Development of South Wales, 1750 - 1850.
Cardiff: U of Wales P: 1950. Pp. xii, 201* -John Rowe, Cornwall
in the Age of the Industrial Revolution* Liverpool UP: 1953. Pp. xii,
367. Rev: EHR 69, 165; EcHR* 9, 1488!

881 Andre" Parreaux, La sodete anglaise de 1760 a 1810. Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France: 1966. Pp» xii, 118. Rev: EHR 83, €19.

588 F. A. Hayek, ed., Capitalism and the Historians. L: Routledge: 1954.
Pp. vii, 192. See particularly the essays by Ashton and Hutt.

588 Arthur J. Taylor, 'Progress and poverty in Britain, 1780 - 1850:
a reappraisal', Hist 45 (1960), 16-31.

584 Eric J. Hobsbawtn, 'The British standard of living, 1790 - 1850%
EcHR* 10 (1957-8), 46-68. -R. Max Hartwell, *The rising
standard of living in England, 1800 - 1850*, ibid. 12 (1959 - 60) 9
397-416. - Hobsbawm and Hartwell, 'The standard of living
during the Industrial Revolution: a discussion*, ibid* 16 (1963 - 4),
120-46.