Overview

Between 1815 and 1870, when European industrialisation was in its infancy and Britain enjoyed a technological lead, thousands of British workers emigrated to the continent. They played a key role in several sectors, like textiles, iron, mechanics, and the railways. These men and women thereby contributed significantly to the industrial take-off in continental Europe. Artisans Abroad examines the lives and trajectories of these workers who emigrated from manufacturing centres in Britain to France, Belgium, Germany, and other countries, considering their mobilities, their culture, their politics, and their relations with the local populations. Fabrice Bensimon reminds us that the British economy was not just oriented towards the Empire and the USA, but also towards the continent, long before the European Union and Brexit, and shows the critical role played by migrant workers in the Industrial Revolution. Artisans Abroad is the first social and cultural history of this forgotten migration.

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9780198835844

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Reviews

Artisans Abroad is a major contribution to labour history. Bensimon argues for the significant role that tens of thousands of British migrant workers played in 19th century Europe. This book repositions the history of industrialisation with a rich selection of narratives of Britain migrant workers and their activities in Europe. * Professor Katrina Navickas, University of Hertfordshire *

Technology has long been regarded as a key factor in comparative economic development, with the transfer of technology from Britain to France during the industrial revolution much studied as a paradigm case. While the export, adoption and adaptation of British machines, industrial espionage, and emigrant entrepreneurs have all been studied, the movement of workers who could set up and operate the new technologies has received much less attention. Fabrice Bensimon's excellent book fills this gap with an account of the textile workers who moved with the technology and helped to make it viable. Bensimon reminds us that skilled labour is always needed to make capital productive and that behind the network of recruiters were enterprising and plucky pioneer economic migrants. This book is essential reading for economic, social, global and business historians. * Professor Jane Humphries, Emeritus Professor of Economic History, Oxford University * Lively, readable, and meticulously researched, Bensimon brings alive a history of European migration largely neglected by modern historians. By examining the lives of British migrants to the continent, Artisans Abroad makes a powerful intervention not only to the social history of workers' lives, but also to the economic history of European industrialisation and is set to become essential reading. * Emma Griffin, President of the Royal Historical Society and Professor of Modern British History, University of East Anglia * With rich detail and original sources, this book gives us a new picture of industrialisation by following the lives of British migrant workers and their families who helped spread it. A must read for European as much as British historians. * Frank Trentmann, author of Empire of Things. How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First * This meticulously researched and engagingly written book will be welcomed by all who are interested in the causes, manifestations and consequences of migration from Britain in the nineteenth century. In a ground-breaking transnational study of a neglected dimension of the British diaspora, the author trains a searching spotlight on the multi-layered story of labour migration to the European continent in a period of significant industrialisation. * Professor Marjory Harper, University of Aberdeen * Artisans Abroad is a major contribution to labour history. Bensimon argues for the significant role that tens of thousands of British migrant workers played in 19th century Europe. This book repositions the history of industrialisation with a rich selection of narratives of Britain migrant workers and their activities in Europe. * Professor Katrina Navickas, University of Hertfordshire *

Author Information

Fabrice Bensimon is a historian of the nineteenth century based at Sorbonne Université.

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