"The world of 1789 was therefore, for most of its inhabitants, incalculably vast. Most of them, unless snatched away by some awful hazard, such as military recruitment, lived and died in the county, and often in the parish, of their birth." p. 10

"By any reckoning, [the Industrial Revolution] was probably the most important event in world history, at any rate since the invention of agriculture and cities. And it was initiated by Britain." p. 29

"And both Britain and the world knew that the Industrial Revolution launched in these islands by and through the traders and entrepreneurs, whose only law was to buy in the cheapest market and sell without restriction in the dearest, was transforming the world. Nothing could stand in its way. The gods and kings of the past were powerless before the businessmen and steam-engines of the present." p. 52

"The problem which faced the French middle class...