{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "perhaps outside your field, but a matter of local interest: what actually happened in Lancashire during the Cotton Famine caused...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/120560881908/", "html": "<div class=\"question\"><strong>fruityyamenrunner</strong> asked: perhaps outside your field, but a matter of local interest: what actually happened in Lancashire during the Cotton Famine caused by the American Civil War? Everything I have read has either been whiggish [or socialist] history [the workers naturally were in solidarity with the Union's cause] or bland economic history stuff, so the impression I have is 'not much, people just got poorer lol'. But maybe you know more?</div>\n<p>Uh. God DAMN is that out of my wheelhouse. I know \u201csocioeconomic history of northern English textile workers with cutting insights, revealing details, and thorough archive work\u201d was the great E.P. Thompson\u2019s specialty, but scanning through the index of Making of the English Working Class I can\u2019t find much that seems to go past the 1820s. </p>\n\n<p>I\u2019d be shocked if one of his compatriots or acolytes didn\u2019t treat the subject though, but beyond that beats me. Maybe don\u2019t be so quick to dismiss the socialist histories, the CPHG crowd did some good work and \u201c19th century English workers were tending towards workers\u2019 solidarity and socialism&quot; is not a ridiculous conclusion to draw.</p>"}