JOYCE APPLEBY’S DARWINIAN THEORY OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.

JOYCE APPLEBY’S DARWINIAN THEORY OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. Niall Ferguson points out that for Appleby the changes we refer to as the Industrial Revolution were the result of an evolutionary process. Appleby’s theory stresses the trial-and-error process of innovation. He quotes Appleby: “Self-assertive individuals did the innovating in England…and they bungled as often as they hit the mark.” Thus Appleby emphasizes (as Gregory Clark does) the people who created the change (“self-assertive individuals”), but she also points out how the process worked. Ferguson quotes her: ” The phrases that we use in talking about human evolution—…’replications’, ‘random variations’, ‘waste’ and survival of the fittest’ —fit…All these came into play in the perfecting of the steam engine…..”