ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses that the industrial revolution had profound effects on British society. This social change largely framed the politics of the era and much of this was played out on the changing British landscape. Britain was radically altered in the nineteenth century, both physically and socially. The shake-up of the class system transformed British politics, with liberalism and conservatism forced to adapt to the new realities and space opening up for the new ideology of socialism. Parliamentary reforms were also brought in, extending the franchise beyond the landed gentry and sweeping away their political privileges such as the ‘rotten boroughs’. With most liberals, conservatives and socialists all coming on board the cause of social reform, the ugly side of urbanization started to be addressed. Laissez-faire economic liberals continued to question state support over market forces, but Benthamite liberals came to acknowledge limits to Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’.
