ABSTRACT
BY far the most important social consequence of the Industrial Revolution was its effect upon the structure of society, and with this effect in its manifold aspects the subsequent chapters are concerned. Meanwhile, the more obvious and immediate social consequences, the controversial effects of industrialism on living standards and the distribution of income, on the role and cohesion of the family, and on life and living conditions in the new and greatly enlarged towns, will be dealt with in this, not so much for their own sake as for the light which they throw on our main theme, the developing structure of society.
