This volume brings together nineteen significant articles on the role of textile industries in the Industrial Revolutions of Britain, Europe, Japan, and the United States. In his introduction, the editor surveys the contribution the textile industries have made to economic change.
Textiles have played a major role in industrial transition. Traditional notions of industrial revolutions have, to a great extent, been built on interpretation of changes in the textile industries and the broader implications of these changes for society. The "heroic" advances in textile technology have been used as benchmark dates in the chronology of industrialization, and theories of industrialization and development have often depended on the models provided by the experiences of these trades.