Premier historian Eric Hobsbawm's brilliant study of the Industrial
Revolution, which sold more than a quarter of a million copies in its
original edition, is now back in print, updated for a new generation. In
Industry and Empire, Hobsbawm explores the origin and dramatic course
of the Industrial Revolution over two hundred and fifty years and its
influence on social and political institutions. He describes and
accounts for Britain's rise as the first industrial power, its decline
from domination, its special relation with the rest of the world, and
the effects of this trajectory on the lives of its ordinary citizens.
This new edition includes a fascinating summary of events of the last
twenty years, and an illuminating new conclusion.