The golden age : essays in British social and economic history, 1850-1870

In 1850 the Industrial Revolution came to an end. In 1851 the Great Exhibition illustrated to the whole world the supremacy of industrial England.

For the next 20 years Britain reigned supreme. From around 1870 Britain began to decline. Britain is now a second rate power with strong memories of its former supremacy.

The above sentences summarize a common view of the sequencing of Britain's rise and fall, a stereotype that is challenged and modified in these essays.

By concentrating on central aspects of social and industrial change, the essays aim to expose the underpinnings of supremacy, its unsung underside, its tarnished gold.

Major themes covered include industrial and technological change, social institutions and gender relations in a period during which industry and industrialism were equally celebrated and nurtured.