Customer Reviews

Child Labor and the Industrial Revolution

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At the time this book was published in 1990, Clark Nardinelli was teaching economics at Clemson University. He wrote in the Preface, "My interest in British child labor during the industrial revolution arose from idle curiosity... The continuing fascination and horror induced by the image of children employed in nineteenth-century British factories led me to try and find out something about it: this book is the record of my search."

Summarizing the work of J.L. and Barbara Hammond, he notes that the Hammonds did not find significant differences between the labor of apprentices and the labor of free children, "who worked the same hours under the same conditions as apprentices. All children worked under appalling conditions." Children were "part of a vicious circle"; their labor drove down their fathers' wages, but their father's low wages forced children to sell their own labor. (Pg. 25-26) He later adds, "The comparison between 1740 and 1840 was therefore not between an idyllic world and a world of misery and vice. Rather, it was a comparison between two worlds of misery and vice." (Pg. 28)

Discussing apprenticeship, Nardinelli states that "Although some factory owners treated parish apprentices fairly, the exploitation of children appears to have been common under this system." Nevertheless, he opines, "not only did the industrial revolution not increase the exploitation of apprentices, it reduced it... When the industrial revolution undermined apprenticeship, it also undermined the potential for exploitation inherent in that institution." (Pg. 87-89)

He suggests that the general rise in literacy shows that children did have opportunities to acquire some education, and that most took advantage of those opportunities. "(B)y the 1880s nearly all young people in Britain were literate. Illiteracy can therefore not be used as evidence that children were exploited in nineteenth century factories." (Pg. 91) He acknowledges, however, that the fact that parents received children's wages directly "made it possible for parents to exploit children... That many parents did indeed greedily neglect the welfare of their children is beyond question." (Pg. 94)

He asserts that "Legislation played a decidedly secondary role" in the virtual disappearance of child labor, which he attributes primarily to "changes in the labor market." (Pg. 125) He states that although some manufacturers may have had predatory motives in supporting child labor laws (e.g., attempting to achieve a cost advantage over other employers), "the dominant motive behind the reform nonetheless appears to have been humanitarianism." (Pg. 137)

He notes in his conclusion, "No one would argue that the little children of the factories were better off than their twentieth-century descendants. The appropriate comparison, however, is not between twentieth-century childhood in Western Europe and nineteenth-century childhood in the British factory districts." (Pg. 155)

This book is a challenging discussion, that will be of great interest to anyone studying this era and issue.