Hawksmoor (Magna Large Print General Series) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Aileen Armitage (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 631 pages
• Publisher: Magna Large Print Books (May 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750509430
• ISBN-13: 978-0750509435
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,876,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN 19TH CENTURY ENGLAND, September 18, 1998

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[e-mail] (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hawksmoor (Magna Large Print General Series) (Hardcover)

Hawskmoor is about the industrial revolution in England in the 19th century. The book begins in the sixteenth century with the Stotts family who are independent landholders. The father of the family is a an independent woolen cloth weaver. The Stotts's are contrasted to the Hardcastles who, also are independent weavers in the sixteenth century, but begin to engage other workers , through the putting out system, to work for them. The Hardcastles then, become incipient capitalists. By the 19th century the Hardcastle family has been knighted, given an estate, and have risen to become members of the aristocracy. The Stotts' on the other hand, have become proletarianized. As the factory system develops and the textile industry is born, machines transform the production of woolen textiles from a craft to mass production. The Stotts' have lost their independence and have become proletarianized mill workers.

The mill owners, represented by Denshaw, rent their land from the Hardcastles and are subordinated to them in a class system which is represented by aristocrats, burgeoning capitalists and impoverished mill workers. The Hardcastles maintain their landed privileges no longer merely by renting land to peasants but by renting their land to the mill owners. Because they own virtually all the land in the community they gain their wealth and social position as a class, through rents rather than industrial production.

While the Hardcastles have become aristocrats, the most recent member of the Stotts family, James, has managed to avoid becoming a mill worker. Since his own family roots lie with the mill workers, he becomes a political activist on behalf of the working class and engages in political activity to end child labor in the mills and bring in the ten hour day.

Yet, despite his political activism, he becomes a food merchant and later the wealthy owner of a paper mill, after working hard and saving his pennies,as a good 19th century capitalist should do. He rises from his working class origins o become a wealthy man.

Even as a mill owner his interests are threatened by the Hardcastles, who still own the land and control the prerogatives of renting it at will. James, a capitalist, who now believes in the free market, bcomes an activist in a political campaign to eliminate the feudal rights of the aristocratic Hardcastles. He becomes an advocate for the rights of the capitalist class to have a free market in land ownership.

The book is not a great literary work, but is a good representation of the transformation of the class system. Three classes are juxtaposed against one another: the aristocracy, the emerging bourgeoisie and the workers. The book depicts the transition from aristocratic control to capitalist control, by showing how the economic and social relationships of the three classes change in response to the growth of industrialization. I think Hawksmoor is a good book to use in a history or sociology course, to educate students about dynamics of class and class conflict as capitalism emerges in England.

5.0 out of 5 stars subtle writing enhances rich storylines, June 14, 2001

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"jerb57" (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hawksmoor (Isis) (Audio Cassette)

The review shown below thorougly describes the content of Hawksmoor. However, there is so much more to credit this book that its social reportage. It is elegantly written in a manner that is understated and true. I was reluctant to take up this book but am so glad that I did. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about the early 1800's in England. More raucous than Jane Austen but perhaps more honest in its telling of what life might really have been like for the impoverished. The characters had dimension and depth. The story proceeded at a steady but unpredicable meter (with the exception of the unfortunate inclusion of unlikely first-sex pregnancies). I hope others will read this book and will enjoy its rich story-telling as much as I.