Emma Griffin is professor of history at the University of East Anglia. She lives in Norwich, UK.
“Liberty’s Dawn is a triumph, achieved in fewer than 250 gracefully
written pages. They persuasively purvey Griffin’s historical
conviction. She is intimate with her audience, wooing it and
teasing it along the way.”—Anthony Fletcher, Times Literary
Supplement
*Times Literary Supplement*
“Griffin’s crisp and accessible prose rests on a foundation of
scrupulous scholarship.”—Amanda Vickery, The Guardian
*The Guardian*
'A totally compelling account of the Industrial Revolution. Through
a remarkable range of life stories, Emma Griffin opens up this
extraordinary epoch of change, providing a brilliant chronicle of
its social history and upending traditional interpretations in the
process. With her light touch and rigorous scholarship, Griffin
provides an important and rewarding overview of this defining
moment in British history.' - Tristram Hunt, author of Building
Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City
*Tristram Hunt*
“This is a brave book that challenges accepted wisdom by offering a
decidedly optimistic view of the impact of the Industrial
Revolution on the opportunities, freedoms and choices available to
the working class.”—Pat Hudson, Times Higher Education
Supplement
*Times Higher Education Supplement*
‘While the author’s purpose is a serious study, this won’t prevent
anyone from lapping up the inspiring stories in this meaty and
satisfying book.’—Lorraine Courtney, Irish Times
*The Irish Times*
'Emma Griffin's brilliant use of the voices of the poor that
survive in memoirs allows us to grasp the ambiguiities and
complexities of their encounter with the momentous changes of the
Industrial Revolution as never before. It was not simply a time of
harsdhip and disruption but of opportunity and release from social
constraints. Griffin's stylish and accessible account marks a major
shift in our understanding of this period that moves beyond
economic abstractions: we hear the voices of those who lived
through the creation of the world's first industrial society.' -
Martin Daunton, author of Wealth and Welfare: An Economic and
Social History of Britain, 1851-1951
*Martin Daunton*
'Emma Griffin gives a new and powerful voice to the men and women
whose blood and sweat greased the wheels of the Industrial
Revolution.' - Tim Hitchcock, author of Down and Out in
Eighteenth-Century London
*Tim Hitchcock*
“Through the ‘messy tales’ of more than 350 working-class lives,
Emma Griffin arrives at an upbeat interpretation of the Industrial
Revolution most of us would hardly recognise. It is quite
enthralling.”—Elizabeth Grice, Oldie Magazine
*Oldie Magaizne*
“A provocative study.”—The New Yorker
*The New Yorker*
‘This is a novel twist on the story behind the Industrial
Revolution. Griffin does a fine job in personalising the social
history of the period by trawling through hundreds of
autobiographies from 1760-1900 to offer first-hand experiences of
how this era impacted upon the working classes, including a rise in
income and improved literacy.’—Steve Harnell, Who Do You Think You
Are Magazine
*Who Do You Think You Are Magazine*
‘Griffin’s excellent history of writing by those born in poverty. .
.shine[s] a light on what working men endured. . .and what they
felt about it, in their own words.’—Lesley McDowell, Sunday
Herald
*Sunday Herald*
“An admirably intimate and expansive revisionist
history.”—Publishers Weekly
*Publishers Weekly*
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