This is the follow-up and companion collection to the already-published Great Industries of the United States. With coverage of the wool, cotton, pottery, iron, steel and shipbuilding industries, and more, these volumes offer a comprehensive account of late nineteenth-century industrial Britain. Written when Britain, a mighty industrial force, was increasingly aware of competition from other countries, the work aims to give a detailed history of each great industry, as well as accounts of the great industrialists and manufacturers.

Profusely illustrated throughout, Great Industries was originally published by Cassell, and would have been a popular ‘coffee-table’ book of its day, enhanced by the numerous writers involved in the project. The articles include H. R. Fox Bourne on foreign rivalries in industrial products, W. Gordon Hogg on health and disease in industrial occupations, James Henderson, Inspector of Factories, on industrial legislation, and several biographies of eminent captains of industry. There is also discussion of the role of art, design and the craftsman in industry.

As with the earlier US work, this title is of great interest in the study of business history and technology as well as the individual industries covered. It includes an extensive index by name and subject.