Analysis of the essay "The Chief Features of the Industrial Revolution"

Right from the title "The Chief Features of the Industrial Revolution" the intelligent reader understands the intention of the writer is to analyse the most important process of European history in the period.

The adjective chief represent a key word because it opens the reader's expectation about the essay.

Right from the start the writer focuses the attention on the introduction of the  process that changed the mentality of England and of the Western world.

The essay provides the reader the definition of the phenomenon and information about the radical alterations going on in the nineteenth century. He provides  examples, judgements and comparisons to justify his thesis and to be credible and persuasive. He resorts to quotations from the main works from the most famous economists of the period  like Adam Smith, Malthus, Ricardo and John Stuart.

The writer also analyses the two most important systems of thought that were the result of the process: Economic science and Socialism which is its opposite because they represent opposing attitudes to the same phenomenon. The essay contains concrete and precise language suitable to offer the intelligent reader descriptions, exact numbers, percentages and data so that he or she may share the essayst's perspective.

The text is therefore developed into ten paragraphs, each having its own function and responding both to a what question and offering  analyse a different aspect well explaining causes and effects of the radical change that substituted competition to the family system of production and distribution.

The essay presents different kinds of argumentationsn and to tell the truth the writer focuses the reader's attention on all the aspects of the Industrial Revolution and this is the reason why the text shows  both comparative, informative and evaluative forms of persuasion.

The writer also includes personal judgements that he justifies with  exhaustive explanations. The detailed account makes use of connectors so that the reader can easely follow the thread of the discussion.

According to the writer the Agrarian Revolution played as large part in the great industrial change. The writer underlines the importance of new scientific discoveries that particularly altered the character of the cotton manufacture. He also adds that the growth of the factory system brought  about the expansion of  means of communication but  the Industrial Revolution did not only provide positive consequences. To tell the truth, at first the development and use of machinery raised workers' wages but later the condition of workmen changed because of the market fluctuations.

In conclusion Toynbee synthesizes his essay in his famous thesis that is that t he effects of the Industrial Revolution may have produced wealth without necessarily producing well-being.