Ryan Hurst Singleton Honors World History 11 March 2024 The Industrial Revolution: Blessing or Curse The Industrial Revolution was a time of great innovation and economic prosperity, or so you’ve been led to believe. In truth, living through the revolution was a struggle for the majority of people. The oppressive work schedule, dangerous machinery, and low wages make daily life a nightmare for factory workers. It wasn’t much better for those who worked in the dingy mills or the dark, cramped coal mines. In addition, diseases caused by pollution, such as cholera or black lung, make it even harder to get by. All of this is not to mention that the wealthy upper class, who used the lower class for all they were worth, looked down on the poor as not working …show more content…
Horrible as it was, the Industrial Revolution did have some advantages. A lecture performed by Arnold Toynbee provides data displaying that through the use of new technology, food production has tripled in the UK. This is despite the fact that between 1811 and 1850, the farming industry decreased from 35% of the population to only 23% (Doc 7). Arnold Toynbee was an English economist. His goal in this lecture was to educate and provide insight to the beginnings of the revolution, and the economic prosperity it brought to England. Through the use of new technologies, such as crop rotation or the seed drill, farmers were able to increase productivity with fewer workers than before, bringing a surplus of food to the country and allowing more people to enter the industrial workforce. Another example of the Industrial Revolution’s benefits comes from an 1867 editorial from The London Times. It alleges that the British middle class had increased by over 40% since the revolution began around 1750. It claims that life expectancy had increased to 40 years, and that this was an era of unprecedented progress and prosperity