Industrialisation in Britain and France, 1750-1870


Trinity Term, 2026

Lecturer and tutor

Dr. Brian A'Hearn, Pembroke College
e-mail: brian.ahearn@pmb.ox.ac.uk
phone: 276 435

Overview

Industrialisation in Britain and France 1750-1870 is a first-year optional history subject. The course is intended as a sort of bridge paper between the disciplines of history and economics for "Heco" students, but is also open to others. It offers an introduction to both the substance and the methods of economic history, in the context of what might be considered the field's founding question: what were the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution? Students will work with both literary sources and quantitative data, apply theoretical frameworks (some introduced in the Approaches to History lectures on economics), and develop a feel for comparative history.

During covid I recorded videos of my lectures. These may be available via links on the course webpage for 2020, here.

Readings

General background and reference readings are here.

Links to readings for particular lectures and tutorial essays are found below.

Lectures

Week 1: A quantitative portraitnotes1 readings
notes2
Week 2: Property rights and agriculture notes readings
Week 3: The British state notes readings
Week 4: The French state under the ancien régime notes readings
Week 5: Technical progress notes readings
Week 6: Demand - the internal market notes readings
Week 7: French revolutions notes readings

Tutorials

I see the lectures and tutorials as complements not substitutes, so although some topics are covered in both, others are discussed only in one or the other. The links below suggest some essay titles and associated readings. There is a certain logic to their order, but it's not necessary to adhere to it. You may write on any topic - including topics of your own choice - in any week, provided you check with me first. Essays must not exceed 2,000 words and should include full bibliographic information on (and appropriate references to) your sources. You should submit your essay at lunchtime on the day before your tutorial, unless prior arrangement has been made. They should be e-mailed to me as pdf documents. I encourage you to share your essays with your tutorial partners as well. You should be prepared to present the main argument and evidence of your essay in about ten minutes at the start of the the tutorial.

Week 2Institutions, property rights and agriculture
Week 3 Population OR living standards
Week 4Ancien regime finance and revolution
Week 5Popular protest and machine breaking OR intellectual property rights and invention
Week 6Child labour OR the impact of the railways
Week 7Your choice

Classes

In classes you will present primary source readings from the course list of set texts. We will need two presenters each week, who can volunteer or will be selected randomly. The links below will take you to some recent student presentations.

Week 2 Young, Cliffe Leslie, Reach de la Rochefoucauld, Colman
Week 3 Malthus Faucher, Birkbeck
Week 4 Chaumont, Nickolls
Week 5 Baines Marshall, Great Exhibition
Week 6 Taine, Ledru-Rollin Symons