Forgive me for being an uneducated slack-jawed gawker as history is made (or re-made in this case) but that's pretty much what the American education system aims to produce, so here I am.
(Actually, it's a dirty secret, but there -ISN'T- an "American" education system. Each state runs a very different one of its own, even though presedential candidates sometimes mention education as if it were a federal issue. I'm from the Californian education system- one of the lowest quality facilities the worlds richest nation has to offer.)

ANYWAY- I didn't even know that anyone contended that we just magically developed industry at a rapid pace. There is a progression from the general technique, to a tool that helps the technique, to a really big mechanical tool to do more of the technique (ie: factory equipment), to specialized labor in factories, and then you may need a new boom in mining smelting and delivery if you want to take advantage of high production ability. Everything builds on everything else- so why in the world would you start with the theory that it all happened at once?

Anyhow... wow i guess. You'd think that in the UK there would be good documentation of things as they appeared in history. I wonder if perhaps this leads to a greater discovery still- for example that Britain stole some of the ideas from somebody else and tried to avoid recording it for history?
Forgive me if that is not a credible suggestion- I already gave my education disclaimer.

lockheed: Great find... makes for a good conspiracy topic on history education.
The Vagabond: That may or may not be the case. But nice opinion.

The truth of the matter is we didn't have computers that could store a ton of information at the time. Not to forget WW1, WW2 and other wars that went on where a lot of records and books were burnt stolen or lost.

History books would be a lot different had the opposition won the war. The winner dictates what information will and will not get leaked out to the media.

Our record keeping of today cannot be compared to what happened during the industrial revolution. Historians have no choice but to make predictions and forecasts with what they had accessible to them at the time. Insustrial revolution is so termed because of the events that took place, took place at the right time. The ideas that were presented had made a revolutionary impact in not just one city but the whole of Europe was affected.

To me it's not a surprising discovery. Steel was invented more than 1000 years before Christ, so what is surprising is that nobody invented a better method for the production of such an important material during almost 3000 years.

It might not be so surprising when you consider that by the 17thC scientific enquiry was begining to flex it's mental muscles and science and industrialisation seem to go hand in hand.

History was my favourite subject at school but the industrial revolution kind of left me cold so I took scant notice of it. I didn't realise there were these kind of controversies within it. A good find.

Well the general consensus, I thought, was that we just all of a sudden boomed into the industrial age. But I think North Carolina's education system sucks!