ABSTRACT
The Industrial Revolution has enormously increased living standards. In the long term, it cannot be disputed that the benefits of economic growth have filtered through society to produce higher per capita incomes and a vastly increased range of consumer choices. Contention on this effect of the Industrial Revolution concerns only timing. Certain periods of rapid advance for the majority - the last quarter of the nineteenth century or 1950-70 - stand out. The question exercising economic and social historians in our period is: were the benefits of industrial advance enjoyed to any important degree by first-generation industrial workers, or were they sacrificed through long hours, vile conditions and uncertain wages to profit hungry employers while, unintentionally; smoothing the path for future generations?
