Quality of Life During the Industrial Revolution.

The industrial revolution was a time of change for England and for the workplace. It introduced the concepts of large scale factories and mass production. Furthermore, the industrial revolution had a dramatic effect on cities and major towns. As workers flocked to them, the cities grew on an unprecedented scale. But as populations grew, the quality of life for most people in the cities started to change. At first it decreased but after a few decades it began to increase and eventually surpassed the old levels. This brings me to the question that I have in this blog post, was the industrial revolution a time of growth in terms of quality of life, or a stain on the way humans lived? The answer, in my opinion, is both. Like I stated before, the Industrial revolution initially brought on poverty and filth but later gave us the foundation for the standard of civilized living we have today. A prime example of this is housing in London during the revolution. In the beginning of the revolution many workers lived in crowded apartments with no regard for sanitation or health. People relieved themselves in outhouses that overflowed and spilled raw sewage into houses. However, this did not last. The industrial revolution can also be credited with providing London with a sewage system and aqueducts to give the population clean water. Another example of the Industrial Revolution going both ways is the topic of child labor in mines and factories. The revolution, while credited with employing children for long hours in deplorable conditions, is also credited with stopping this practice. Sometimes humanity needs to make mistakes and learn from them and in terms of quality of life, thats just what happened during the revolution.