My aim in revising this book has been to take account of the major new knowledge and ideas on the industrial revolution emerging from the research results which have been published in the (roughly) fifteen years since the first edition went to press. The new knowledge has made it possible to write with more confidence or precision on a number of issues where paucity of evidence had led me to tentative, vague or misconceived conclusions. Lively recent debates in the journals and the criticisms I have got from reviews, colleagues and students (not only my own, but also from students who have been good enough to write to me on points of detail) have stimulated me to alter, or to put a different slant on, judgments which now seem to me to have been ill formulated. Apart from such rewritten passages, the major changes involved in the revision have taken the form of expanding the text in areas where we now know more, or where other questions have become of interest, and of incorporating references to recent publications. Those who are familiar with the first edition will find that the section which has been most extensively altered is the updated guide to future reading. In an effort to keep this deliberately introductory bibliography to a reasonable length, I have made way for new references by omitting some of the seminal items recorded in the first edition, knowing that they are fully referred to in the more recent sources, and I have generally omitted references to articles reprinted in books of readings on controversial topics already included.