Originally written for undergraduates, this posthumously published collection of lectures from 1884 tackles many of the misconceptions held by nineteenth-century economists. Where other commentators often dealt with the subject of the Industrial Revolution in the abstract, Arnold Toynbee applies here an evidence-based approach, with astute but also entertaining results.

Widely credited as having established the term 'industrial revolution' as a historical concept, Arnold Toynbee (1852-83) was among the most outspoken political economists of the nineteenth century. This volume is a collection of his Balliol lectures and other public addresses, originally published posthumously in 1884. The lectures, often humorous, discuss developments in contemporary political economy, the views of other commentators, and the impact on society of this new discipline; viewed as a collection, they represent one of the first calls for economic history as an academic subject to be studied separately from political history. Given during the early 1880s, the popular addresses treat some of the most important economic topics of the day, from the role of trade unions to the relationship between wages and production. Also included in this book are a preface by the author's wife, and a memoir by his friend and colleague, Benjamin Jowett.