In the mid-sixteenth century England's peripheral location at the edge of continental Europe was symbolically appropriate both demographically and economically. The island was relatively sparsely peopled. Her population was only a fifth that of France, or about a quarter that of Germany or Italy. In agriculture, industry and commerce advance depended heavily on the importation from the continent of more sophisticated techniques. It could be argued that by the late twentieth century in economic matters the ancient pattern had re-established itself; that the wheel has turned full circle; that in one sense of the term a revolution had occurred. Whatever the truth of this view, there can be no dispute that in the interim a revolution in another sense of the term had taken place, nor that it has transformed the economic, social and demographic constitution of countries across the face of the globe more profoundly than any other change in the history of literate societies. Furthermore, this other revolution, in its initial stages, was largely played out in England and the other countries of the British Isles, a fact which might naturally cause British historians to devote to it particular attention.

The industrial revolution is the centrepiece of world history over recent centuries, and a fortiori of the country in which it began. Yet its significance, though seldom denied, is not prominently visible in general historical writing.