It is the contention of this book that industrialization in Britain (and elsewhere) occurred first and foremost within regions rather than in the nation as a whole and that attempts to understand the "first industrial revolution" as a fundamentally important economic, social and political process are best undertaken with the regional perspective at centre stage. In Regions and Industries a team of distinguished historians contribute a series of interconnected essays illustrative of the richness and variety of fundamental change at regional level. Each essay is focused around a set of clearly articulated themes, concerning the relations between agriculture, population, resources, communications and cultures, and the changing national and international context within which regional economies functioned. The volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the existing theoretical and empirical literature, and emphasizes again the need to evaluate aggregate studies of "national" variables in the light of contrasting regional experiences.