Industry

When I had access to the SUNY Stonybrook libraries The question of the industrial revolution occurred to me.
I pulled out a few books and began to read.
I soon concluded that the authors I found had, again, not done their homework.

There was no agreement as to what the event was, what caused it, or what changed.

Joseph Needham wrote an enormous "History of Chinese Technology". It is a better framework than anything I found by direct simple search. Unfortunately it deals with failed industrial revolutions in Han China, not in Britain and America.

I came to this study wondering why manufacturing innovation was not readilly accepted. It was what I wanted to do. I found that it is disruptive of the established order. The driving force behind industrial development in the atlantic basin was just such a disruption. The outs wanted in and were quite willing to do it by the development and application of wealth. Once established themselves, they make every effort to preserve their position.

The joy of this is in the stories, the details.