The momentum of the British industrial revolution arose mostly in regions poorly endowed by nature, badly located and considered backward and poor by contemporaries. Sidney Pollard examines the initially surprising contribution made by the population of these and other `marginal areas' (mountains, forests and marshes) to the economic development of Europe since the Middle Ages. He provides case studies of periods in which marginal areas took the lead in economic
development, such as the Dutch economy in its Golden Age, and in the British industrial revolution. The traditional perception of the populations inhabiting these regions was that they were poor, backward, and intellectually inferior; but Sidney Pollard shows how they also had certain peculiar qualities
which predisposed them to initiate progress. Healthy living, freedom, a martial spirit, and the hardiness to survive in harsh conditions enabled them to contribute a unique pioneering ability to pivotal economic periods; illustrating some of the effects of geography upon the development of societies.
- ISBN10 0198206380
- ISBN13 9780198206385
- Publish Date 15 May 1997
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 7 August 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Oxford University Press
- Imprint Clarendon Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 336
- Language English