Traditionally, the "Industrial Revolution" is seen as a sharp discontinuity in Britain's history, dating from circa 1760, and characterised by the meteoric rise of the cotton mills, the adoption of Watt's steam engine, and the emergence of a new class-based social order. It is a version of events that has been criticised, modified, rejected and revived by generations of historians. But where did this traditional account come from? How did it become...