The Industrious Revolution: Consumer Behavior and the Household Economy, 1650 to the Present [Hardcover]

This important book is an interesting combination of economic and social history. An examination of family structure in an economic context, De Vries describes 3 substantial changes in family-household economic behavior since the mid-17th century. His focus on regions that were the leading edges of European economic development, northwestern Europe and America, with some expansion in the latter parts of the book. De Vries opens by documenting the basic phenomenon across the "long 18th century," the period from mid-17th century to about 1830 in which many households began to consume a wider variety and amount of consumer goods, accompanied by an intensification of household labor and engagement with different aspects of the market. Accompanying the basic description is a theoretical discussion of the nature of consumption stressing the family/household as the unit of consumption and the crucial ultimate assessment of utilities occurring within families, not in the marketplace per se. A recurrent theme throughout the book is De Vries emphasis on family/household decisions as an autonomous force, rather than a passive reactor to market forces. De Vries also connects this European historical phenomenon with more recent discussions of economic development in Asia, making European economic development less of an outlier. As he is quick to point out, the term Industrious Revolution was coined by a Japanese scholar studying Japanese and Chinese economic development. De Vries discusses also the intellectual reaction to changing consumer patterns, stressing the Enlightenment emphasis on commerce and social interactions as a civilizing force. This followed by a detailed description of the Industrious Revolution itself, showing the diverse ways in which families/households expanded work commitments of all family members and acquired an increasing range and quality of goods. This phenomenon was clearly accompanied by a wide expansion of markets and retail throughout Europe. This description is set against a very interesting analysis, partly historiograhic, of the role of consumption in general European economic history and the Industrial Revolution. One of De Vries' key points is that the Industrious Revolution was an independent precursor of industrialization and may have set the stage for industrial development. Another interesting implication is that despite stagnation of wages across this period, the increasing availability, variety, affordability, and quality of consumer goods, implies rising standards of living.

De Vries follows the very interesting analysis of the Industrious Revolution with descriptions of 2 subsequent major changes in family/household economic behavior; the emergence in the second half of the 19th of the Breadwinner-Homemaker family and the more recent re-emergence of a form of the Industrious family. In both cases, De Vries has nice discussions of the phenomena themselves and some interesting analysis of the prior literature, of which he is often critical for neglecting the importance of decisions within families and the relative autonomy of family/household decisions.

All discussions are written clearly and based on careful analysis of the prior literature. Indeed, De Vries critical examination of much prior work is one of the best aspects of this book. The bibliography and documentation are excellent and the publisher deserves credit for providing footnotes on the text page. One probably unavoidable drawback of this analysis is that we don't get a good idea of the causes of these changes. De Vries emphasis on family/household autonomy is well taken but family/household, due to evidentiary limitations, is something of a black box. In addition, this is likely to be one of those complex, multi-factorial phenomena where small initial effects and positive feedbacks drive change.

De Vries is an outstanding economic historian, and his many insights in the field are shown to advantage in The Industrious Revolution. However, the book is not as well written as other books by De Vries that I have enjoyed, for example The Economy of Europe in an Age of Crisis, which addresses similar themes. The Industrious Revolution suffers from the involuted, cutesy writing that has become popular among academic historians, as they borrowed the prose style and self-referential concerns of cultural criticism. This is a shame, since De Vries' strongest books are luminous in their clarity.