Between 1800 and 1850 Britain underwent a revolution, not in the political sense such as that which had overwhelmed the French monarchy a generation earlier, but a social and economic one. The Industrial Revolution when, for a few short decades, Britain became the ‘Workshop of the World’ was one of the defining eras of modern history. The country’s economy moved from one based upon agriculture with most of the population living in rural areas, to one where trade and industry dominated and where the greater proportion of the population resided in the burgeoning towns and cities. Many factors played their part in bringing this about this radical change in the national condition but one of the most significant was the revolution in transport without which the other elements which made up by the Industrial Revolution would not have been possible or would have occurred much more slowly.
Although the canal age had marked a dramatic change in the qualitative and quantitative provision of transport in the British Isles, the massive demands made upon transport as a result of the growth of industry and urbanisation required something much more substantial — the railways. It was no accident that the first major phase of growth in the railway industry, from the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway to the collapse of the railway mania in 1845, was concurrent with the massive growth in Britain’s industrial base. It was the coming of the railway that, for the first time, truly knitted the country together, bringing as it did uniform time across the country for the first time in history.
Although the birth of the railway age is one of the pivotal points in the development of Britain as a modern nation state it has been relatively little examined in the literature of the Industrial Revolution. This omission is rectified by the publication of The Grand Experiment: The Birth of the Railway Age 1820-1845. Drawing upon contemporary documents and illustrations, Stuart Hylton narrates the fascinating history of the dawn of the railway age.
Detailed in its analysis and comprehensive in its coverage, The Grand Experiment will become the definitive account of this vital period in Britain’s transport and economic history. It will be required reading for all historians of the period as well as the growing number fascinated with the history of the Industrial Revolution.
Title: The Grand Experiment - The Birth of the Railway Age 1820-45
Author: Stuart Hylton
Format: HB 288 pages
Publisher: Ian Allan Ltd
Pub date: June 2007
ISBN 10: 071103172X
ISBN 13: 9780711031722
List Price: £19.99
