Capital and Labour in Victorian England - Manufacturing Consensus

Despite extensive scholarship on the social and cultural history of industrial England there is little work that explores how new forms of capitalist production were understood and normalised. Capital and Labour in Victorian England explores how accounts of industrial society evolved in the 19th century and how they inspired reform movements designed to accommodate the conflicts and contradictions that were a feature of industrial capitalism. It traces the rise of capitalist utopianism in the mid-century, and how such visions fell apart in the face of industrial unrest, organised labour, and more aggressive forms of capitalism. By the end of the century capital and labour were seen as inevitably separate, distinct and opposed - a development that sharpened class politics and shaped the way the first accounts of industrialisation were written.>

About the author

Donna Loftus is Senior Lecturer in History at The Open University, UK.

Product details

• Authors: Donna Loftus, Donna (Donna Loftus Loftus, Donna (The Open University Loftus, Loftus Donna
• Assisted by: Sasha Handley (Editor), Rohan Mcwilliam (Editor), Lucy Noakes (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 13.11.2025
• EAN: 9781441196583
• ISBN: 978-1-4411-9658-3
• No. of pages: 208
• Series: New Directions in Social and C; New Directions in Social and C; New Directions in Social and Cultural History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Modern era up to 1918; England, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, European History, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, c 1500 onwards to present day, British & Irish history, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General, Social and cultural history, 1837–1901 (Victorian period), Industrialisation and industrial history