The history of the industrial revolution has been rewritten in the last twenty years. The focus has shifted away from factory workers toward artisans, and the character of the social crisis has been rethought. It was not so much a decline in the standard of living, not the drudgery of machine-tending, nor the poor housing of factory towns that afflicted society during the early phase of industrialization, but a loss of independence, the violation of old moral standards by unrestricted competition, the displacement of skilled by unskilled, the disruption of shop custom, insecurity of status. Conscious laissez-fairer form played as much a role in overturning the old order as expanding commerce; technological advance, while important, was limited in its impact. The per capita growth rate of France was as great as that of England in the first half of the nineteenth century, and artisan experience in both countries was extremely similar.

Even the new factory workers of Lancashire can no longer be seen as the faceless proletarians of legend; their grievances, on closer examination, appear to have been nearly the same as those of artisans. Machine tending in the early days was organized like artisanal labor; and the operatives struggled (in the end with moderate success) to keep it that way.

This study examines the parallel experiences of French mill operatives; but it also aims,at the same time, to push the whole discussion of the nature of industrialization a step further. A detailed study of the French textile trade seems well-suited to the accomplishment of this latter aim for two reasons.