EDIT: thanks all! Got a TON of great replies and book recs
So, #history question: I was taught that industrialization/urbanization, the move from farming communities into cities, happened because it provided a higher standard of living, no more starvation etc.
I'm pretty sure that was bullshit, given everything else I've read about the life of say, bakers in cities (and those who relied on their literal singular Daily Bread). Or how many holidays a Christian peasant apparently got.
How did that actually go down? Was urbanization better at first and only got so bad after? Was it because they were coming out of like, the black death or something? Just times were changing?
@glassbottommeg Mmm thinking about the textile mills in the first stage of industrialization in the UK, it was probably in part because land had to be given by the Monarchy/Lords, so if you had no land to work, or if the harvest was bad, or similar, getting some extra money working at the factory was attractive to some extent. The existence of the Luddites kind of shows that people were aware it was a raw deal, but economic forces and state violence put a lid on that.
@glassbottommeg the answer is the enclosure of the commons. Like, basically until john snow started the push for public health in like the late 19th c. cities were hellpits. They had a negative birthrate, and would not have been at all sustainable if not for the systemic destruction of rural life. In the 16th c. noblemen in England and parts of France realized they could become rich by fucking over their serfs, taking over all the land in their remit, and removing most people.