By using many real case studies, including the experiences of individuals as well as extracts from contemporary documents, this book aims to capture the reality of industrialization while introducing the many facts and figures which make up the real backbone of the history of the period. The study opens with a complete summary of the many debates in the literature on this period. It then makes a case for re-introducing a regional approach to the history of the age. It goes on to look at the development of the economic structures, which include chapters on financing the revolution, technological change, markets and demand, transport and food. The final section looks at economic change and its impact, which includes chapters on demography, the household, families, authority and regulation, and the built environment.