The British Industrial Revolution has long been seen as the spark for modern, global industrialization and sustained economic growth. Indeed the origins of economic history, as a discipline, lie in 19th-century European and North American attempts to understand the foundation of this process. In this book, William J. Ashworth questions some of the orthodoxies concerning the history of the industrial revolution and offers a deep and detailed reassessment of the subject that focuses on the State and its role in the development of key British manufactures. In particular, he explores the role of State regulation and protectionism in nurturing Britain's negligible early manufacturing base. Taking a long view, from the mid 17th century through to the 19th century, the analysis weaves together a vast range of factors to provide one of the fullest analyses of the industrial revolution, and one that places it firmly within a global context, showing that the Industrial Revolution was merely a short moment within a much larger and longer global trajectory. This book is an important intervention in the debates surrounding modern industrial history will be essential reading for anyone interested in global and comparative economic history and the history of globalization. This is a brilliant, daring, and thoroughly researched book. Itsoriginality rests on Ashworth's remarkable capacity to link commercialand political history to the history of science in the making of theindustrial revolution. Ashworth calls into question the claim that aunique scientific culture underpinned Britain's early industrialascendancy. Moreover, he emphasizes the role of the British state andits industrial policies rather than "free markets" in providing aneffective context for industrial change. In doing so, he knits togethercommercial expansion, the protectionist and regulatory practices of thestate, and the transformation of British technology in a highlycompelling manner. -- Leonard Rosenband, Utah State University, USA Every decade or so a book comes out that forces historians to reinterpretfundamentally Britain's Industrial Revolution. This is such a book.Ashworth combines deep and even dense scholarship with fearless andsweeping interpretation, and though he is not the first to focus on theperiod after the Glorious Revolution, instead of prioritizing finance,commerce, or consumption, he argues that it was Britain'sinterventionist state and associated mercantilist controls that boostedBritain's productivity and created her manufacturing pre-eminence. Itfollows that, far from creating the industrial revolution, Adam Smith'smarket theory and free trade political economy were only possiblebecause of it. All in all, a tour de force. -- Boyd Hilton, University of Cambridge, UK Historians have long debated the nature of the British Industrial Revolution, andtheir debates have invariably had profound implications for the way weview the present. Every so often, a book comes along that reframes theterms of this debate. The Industrial Revolution: The State, Knowledgeand Global Trade is such a book. Ashworth's narrative combines vastsynthesis with profound research. Marshaling an enormous range ofsecondary source material, and interrogating that historiography withhis own deep archival knowledge, Ashworth succeeds in producing thatrare effect: a historical gestalt shift. Those who read and digest thisbook will come away with a radically new perspective. -- Andre Wakefield, Pitzer College, USA William J. Ashworth is a Reader in History at the University of Liverpool, UK. He is the author of Customs and Excise: Trade, Production and Consumption in England, 1640-1845 (2003).