Whether the Industrial Revolution gave most Britons absolutely or relatively more and better food, clothes and housing is naturally of interest to every historican. But he will miss much of its point if he forgets that it is not merely a process of addition and subtraction, but a fundamental social change. It transformed the lives of men beyond recognition. Or, to be more exact, in its initial stages it destroyed their old ways of living and left them free to discover or make themselves new ones, if they could and knew ho

The British Industrial Revolution experienced mass migration from the country to the town, the evaluation of which is every bit as complicated as the evaluation of the, in some respects similar, migrations of the present day.22 The majority of migrants do not regret the decision to move. Not all have burnt their boats, but return to the country is fairly rare.23 Yet tastes are altered by the city, and the possibility of return to the old life‐style can be forfeited

ecognize and respect a different view argued vigorously by Amartya Sen (see Sen et al.,  1987) according to which, to put it simply, the standard of living should embrace all aspects of the quality of life. Not only has this view great appeal but it also enjoys the advantage that it evades awkward delineation problems.

Class has been called an ‘unspeakable’ identity that is seldom discussed.

The debate about this dominance of a public school elite

wellconnected people accumulate wealth and power (reflecting the popular sociological observation that ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know that counts’).

wellconnected people accumulate wealth and power (reflecting the popular sociological observation that ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know that counts’). In parallel, disconnected people (like the ‘Street People’discussed in Chapter 1) are likely to experience marginality and exclusion, and may be treated as different from the norm. Indeed, as I was writing this chapter in 2013, there was a debate going on about the dominance of public school educated people in the UK, started by the last non-public school educated Prime Minister, John Major, who said:‘In every single sphere of British influence, the upper echelons of power in 2013 are held overwhelmingly by the privately educated or the affluent middle class’ (BBC News, 2013).