Topic description and stories

Britain industrialised much earlier than history books claim

05 Apr 2024

Millions of historical employment records show the British workforce turned sharply towards manufacturing jobs during the 1600s – suggesting the...

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How 9,000 lists written over 300 years are helping to test theories of economic growth

03 Jul 2018

The handwritten inventories had lain largely untouched for centuries. Sand used to dry the ink still lay between the pages. Written neatly inside...

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Industrial workplace

Industrial Revolution: damaging psychological ‘imprint’ persists in today’s populations

10 Dec 2017

Study finds people in areas historically reliant on coal-based industries have more ‘negative’ personality traits. Psychologists suggest this...

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Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg in 1801

A real piece of work

16 Jun 2015

In 2003, researchers embarked on a project to piece together a picture of changes in British working life over the course of 600 years. The emerging...

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Lessons from history: how Europe did (and didn’t) grow rich

24 Mar 2013

The Industrial Revolution is seen as the spark that lit Europe’s economic prosperity. In her analysis of markets over many hundreds of years...

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Ned Ludd

Rage against the machine

11 Apr 2012

April 2012 marks the bicentenary of the high-water mark of the Luddite rebellion – but new research suggests that the movement may be celebrated for...

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Marriage inventory, Württemberg, 1682

300 years of list-making

20 May 2011

Personal inventories spanning three centuries are helping researchers unlock the mysteries of how economies edge towards growth and prosperity.

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South Pond Pavilion at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo

Sustainability revolution

17 Dec 2010

A sustainability revolution could follow the agricultural, industrial and digital revolutions, according to speakers at a discussion hosted by These...

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