The factory question and industrial England, 1830-1860 addresses the continuing controversy over industrialisation. It investigates different perceptions of the 'factory system' either as a threat or as a promise, and the contested meanings of waged work in industry.

Making use of a great variety of sources, such as sermons, medical treatises, fictional and visual representations, Robert Gray places the languages of debate in their cultural contexts, paying particular attention to the shifting constructions of class and gender in the rhetoric of reform, and the ambiguities and tensions inherent in 'protective' legislation. He then relates patterns of conflict over factory legislation to the features of specific industrial towns.

The combination of regional, cultural and textual analysis makes this book a coherent and original contribution to the study of industrial Britain in the nineteenth century.