Peter Kirby's analytical survey of child labor during the industrial revolution asserts that the concentration by some historians and social commentators upon small numbers of industrially-employed children has diverted attention from the important role of the working child within the context of the family, the labor market and the state. Kirby convincingly argues that during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, child labor provided an invaluable contribution both to economic growth and to the incomes of working-class households. The book also discusses the major issues involved in the...

Historians have long recognised the importance of child health during the Industrial Revolution, but few have explored the health of working children in any analytical detail. In this comprehensive study, Peter Kirby places the occupational health of employed children within a broad context of social, industrial and environmental change during the period 1780 to 1850. The book explores the deformities, fevers, respiratory complaints, industrial injuries and physical ill-treatment which have long been associated with child labour in the factory workplace. The result is a more nuanced picture...