Industrialisation and Everyday Life

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by Rudolf Braun,

Translated by Tenison Sarah Hanbury

Cambridge University Press

Due/Published April 2005, 244 pages, paper

ISBN 0521619297

Industrialising und Volksleben by Rudolf Braun is widely regarded as a classic of modern social history, inspiring a whole series of profound debates about the transition from pre-industrial society to the modern world. Utilising evidence from an upland Swiss canton, Industrialisation and Everyday Life provides a comprehensive survey of the impact upon popular life styles of the development of widespread cottage industry, as land-hungry labourers added textile manufacture to their existing agricultural concerns. Braun analyses the structure of such 'proto-industry', looking at the changes wrought upon family life, domestic housing and popular culture in general. A great variety of literary and artistic sources are drawn together in a vivid portrayal of the ways in which early industrial development and social modernisation became fused together.

Contents

Prefaces; Acknowledgements; Notes on measures and coinage; Introduction; 1. The preconditions for industrialisation; 2. Changes to the structure of family and population in the industrial regions; 3. Life and society of the population engaged in industry; 4. The impact of industrialisation on the house and the rural economy; 5. Work in the putting-out industry and its effect on the life of the common people; 6. The outworkers" attitude to poverty and crises; 7. Conclusion; Postscript; Appendix; Notes; Sources and bibliography; Index.