Fabrice Bensimon, Artisans Abroad: British Migrant Workers in Industrialising Europe, 1815-1870, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023, pp. 304, h/b, £83, ISBN: 9780198835844.

Between 1815 and 1870, when European industrialisation was in its infancy and Britain enjoyed a technological lead, thousands of British workers emigrated to the continent. They played a key role in sectors such as textiles, iron, mechanics, and the railways. These men and women thereby contributed significantly to the industrial take-off in continental Europe.

In Artisans Abroad, Professor Fabrice Bensimon, historian of the nineteenth century at Sorbonne Université, Paris, examines the lives and trajectories of these workers who emigrated from manufacturing centres in Britain to France, Belgium, Germany, and other countries, considering their mobilities, their culture, their politics, and their relations with the local populations.

He reminds us that the British economy was not just oriented towards the Empire and the USA, but also towards the continent, long before the European Union and Brexit, and shows the critical role played by migrant workers in the industrial revolution. Artisans Abroad is the first social and cultural history of this forgotten migration.

Find out more and download the ebook free of charge (open access) in PDF format.

Artisans Abroad has been described by Professor Emma Griffin, President of the Royal Historical Society and Professor of Modern British History at the University of East Anglia as ‘lively, readable, and meticulously researched’. She adds: ‘Bensimon brings alive a history of European migration largely neglected by modern historians. By examining the lives of British migrants to the continent, Artisans Abroad makes a powerful intervention not only to the social history of workers’ lives, but also to the economic history of European industrialisation and is set to become essential reading.’

Professor Katrina Navickas of the University of Hertfordshire, says: ‘Artisans Abroad is a major contribution to labour history. Bensimon argues for the significant role that tens of thousands of British migrant workers played in 19th century Europe. This book repositions the history of industrialisation with a rich selection of narratives of Britain migrant workers and their activities in Europe.’

Published by Oxford University Press, the book is available now in hardback, while the PDF ebook can be downloaded free of charge (open access) from the publisher’s website.

Table of contents
Introduction
1. ‘Taking their labour and art to the best market’: The Political Economy of British Emigration to the Continent
2. ‘The three pricipal manufactories at Paris are conducted by Englishmen’: The Sectors of Workers’ Emigration
3. The Gender of Migration: Women, Children, and Textiles across the Channel
4. ‘Not one of us […] is able to speak more than a few words of the language’: Language, Cultural Practices, and Religion
5. ‘Driven from his native land to seek employment under a foreign despotism’: Associations, Unions, and Continental Chartism
6. ‘A bas les Anglais!’: Integration and Rejection
Conclusion