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‘More Myth than Reality’: the Independent Artisan in Nineteenth Century Sheffield
Author(s) -
GRAYSON RUTH,
WHITE ALAN
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.1996.tb00190.x
Subject(s) - mythology , handicraft , industrial revolution , context (archaeology) , factory (object oriented programming) , craft , norm (philosophy) , art , sociology , aesthetics , history , visual arts , archaeology , classics , political science , computer science , law , programming language
In the context of an industrial revolution dominated by technological change and factory‐based production, nineteenth century Sheffield has been perceived as differing from the norm. Small workshops, numerous outworkers and the retention of handicraft skills have charcterised the cutlery trades until the present century and these economic structures are said to have produced a backward looking but independent and robust artisan class. In this paper we argue that the robust artisan was more a creature of myth than reality. We point to the critical role of the factor in the nineteenth century cutlery trade for an understanding of the slide of the little master into dependence.