Eric E. Lampard

Neil J. Smelser. Social Change in the Industrial Revolution: An Application of Theory to the British Cotton Industry. Pp. xii, 440. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959.

of-these trends are distinctively British and not so likely to be known generally: the revolutionary switch from textiles to metal goods (pp. 36-7), for instance, or the remarkable increase in the proportion of employment in the larger manufacturing plants (p. 57), or the development of oil refining (p. 86) from imported crude oil. Other trends distinctive to Britain are well known-often too much publicizedabroad, but it is useful to have, for instance, an exact account (Chapter VI) of the directions and extent of State action. Common to Britain and America are the growing use of energy (Chapter III), particularly electrical power and oil; the use (Chapter V) of new materials and processes-such as man-made fibers; and (Chapter IV) the growing expenditure on research. The authors’ comparison of the proportions of national income spent on research in various industries in America

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This paper is intended to provoke a general discussion of the nature and uses of historical sociology and its possible relevance to the work of economic historians. It is not an exhaustive treatment of the topic. Terms of reference merely call for a reconsideration of “the penetrative powers of the price system.”