Burnette on Horn, _The Industrial Revolution: Milestones in Business History_

[eh.net-review at eh.net]

Published by EH.NET (January 2008)

Jeff Horn, _The Industrial Revolution: Milestones in Business 
History_. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. xxii + 167 pp. $50 
(hardcover), ISBN: 978-0-313-33853-3.

Reviewed for EH.NET by Joyce Burnette, Department of Economics, Wabash College.


Though not printed on glossy paper, _The Industrial Revolution_ by 
Jeff Horn (Manhattan College) is clearly a textbook, complete with 
maps, a timeline, and "boxes" providing additional details on 
important persons. Those familiar with the industrial revolution will 
not find anything new, but the book does provide a convenient summary 
of the period, and would serve as a useful reference for someone who 
is not yet sufficiently familiar with the field. However, the 
scarcity of specific footnotes would frustrate the graduate student. 
The intended audience for the book seems to be lower-level 
undergraduates. The book does not assume any knowledge of economic 
theory, and does not assume much general knowledge. (For example, an 
early footnote explains the difference between Britain and England.) 
Since its main purpose seems to be as an undergraduate textbook, this 
review will focus on describing how this book compares to other 
potential textbooks, such as those by Joel Mokyr and Pat Hudson.

One of the ways that this book differs from other potential textbooks 
of the industrial revolution is in its historical, rather than 
economic, focus. Horn is a historian, and does not attempt to 
introduce economic theory into the discussion. He occasionally uses 
terms in a way that an economist would not, as when he calls trade a 
"weapon" (p. 120), or when he makes a distinction between technique 
and technology. Horn discusses such changes as enclosure, new crop 
rotations, and animal breeding, but notes that the agricultural 
revolution "occurred in technique, not in technology" (p. 11). While 
Horn does not use economic theory, he does emphasize the history of 
economic thought more than most texts, and includes quotes from 
contemporary economic thinkers such as List, Owen, and Quesnay, as 
well as quotes from inventor-entrepreneurs such as Blanc and Wedgwood.

While the first five chapters focus on Britain, the next two chapters 
focus on other parts of the world. Chapter 6 discusses the industrial 
revolutions in continental Europe and the United States. France and 
the U.S. receive the most attention, and Belgium and Germany feature 
less prominently. Chapter 7 examines the relationship between 
industrializing and non-industrializing countries, and suggests that 
the industrial revolution was both a cause and effect of colonialism. 
Colonies helped Europe industrialize by providing markets, and the 
exploitation of colonial labor made Europe wealthy. The industrial 
revolution, in turn, provided the military and transportation 
technology that helped Europe maintain and expand its dominance.

As a textbook, this book does not have an explicit thesis. It does, 
however, make claims about the industrial revolution. Horn emphasizes 
the actions of the British government that favored employers over 
employees. In a section on "State Support for Entrepreneurs" he 
suggests that "[l]abor was also controlled more thoroughly than in 
the past," noting the support of the British parliament for 
enclosures and the Poor Laws, and the prohibition of worker 
combinations (p. 28). Horn's claim that "the state had to take an 
ever-more active role in fostering economic development" (p. 33) is 
at odds with Polanyi's claim that the early nineteenth century saw 
the ascendancy of the free market system. Horn, however, suggests 
that allegiance to the free market was professed but not acted upon; 
he notes that "the governments of Europe were poised to take an ever 
greater economic role no matter what lip service they paid to the 
concept of 'laissez-faire, laissez-passer'" (p. 144).

In contrast to Mokyr, who suggests that Britain's "[e]mpire and 
foreign policy seem to have conveyed at best a slight advantage" 
(_The British Industrial Revolution_, Westview Press, 1993, p. 75), 
Horn emphasizes the benefits that Europe got from its colonies. He 
states very bluntly that "Britain bled India dry" (p. 126). He cites 
the work of Joseph Inikori and Kenneth Pomeranz to demonstrate how 
Europe benefited from colonialism. Horn does not see the industrial 
revolution as a beneficial event: "Consumer capitalism was based on 
exploitation" (p. 143). While he describes the causes and effects of 
the industrial revolution, he does not seem to approve of it.


Joyce Burnette is Daniel F. Evans Associate Professor of Economics at 
Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Her book, _Gender, Work 
and Wages in Industrial Revolution Britain_, will be published by 
Cambridge University Press in 2008.

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