Modern World History / Name: _______________________________________
The Industrial Revolution and the British Working Class: A
Document-Based Look
For a look at how the Industrial Revolution impacted the lives of the working-class
majority of Britain, the first society to industrialize, we will be wrapping up our week by
tackling the prompt below
1. Evaluate the extent to which industrialization changed life for the working class population of Britain in
the time period c. 1800 to 1870.
Here’s how we’ll do it:
Step 1: Make sure you remember that life for the British working
class BEFORE the Industrial Revolution began around the year 1750
(like the folks harvesting at right) was quite a bit similar to life for
other peasants and servants in most agricultural societies for the
preceding ten thousand years – It involved long hours of frenetic
labor during certain parts of the year, especially at planting times
and harvest times. At other times of the year, such as winter, the
pace of work was much slower, as tending farm animals was the
only agricultural work to be done outside of growing seasons. Pay
for work as a farmer or servant was often scant, and from a very
early age children were expected to work alongside their parents in
the fields as soon as they were physically able to do so. Even in a
relatively urbanized society such as Britain, the vast majority of the
working-class population lived in the countryside before 1750.
Step 2: Read the documents . . .
AGGRESSIVELY!
Step 3: Use the graphic organizer below to plan out an essay (even though you’re not going to write the whole thing!)
(Oh, and make sure you have AT LEAST THREE claims [main points] to support your argument [though four
would be even better!])
Claim / Main Point
Supporting Documents
Evaluation
Step Four: Now, write the FIRST TWO PARAGRAPHS of an essay responding to that prompt. Make sure to include:
 A contextualization paragraph! (Check your “How to Write DBQs, Part One” document, on paper or in our
OneNote content library, if you need a reminder of how to do these!)
 A thesis statement paragraph! (Check your “How to Write DBQs, Part One” document, on paper or in our
OneNote content library, if you need a reminder of how to do these!)
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