Britain industrialization working hours 19th century leisure

Industrialization first lengthened British work hours

In Britain, working hours initially grew longer with industrialization. Political and economic changes over the 19th century eventually brought them back to pre-industrial levels, and sometimes below them, leaving more time for leisure.

Humans hunted and gathered for at least 90% of our history

At Least 90%

For at least 90% of human history, people lived mainly by hunting animals and gathering wild foods. Farming appeared only very late compared with the roughly 1.8 million years covered by this estimate.

An English diary records baseball in 1755

A handwritten English diary entry from 1755 records a game called “base ball.” It places the game in England decades before the traditional mid-19th-century U.S. origin story, and supports the possibility that English settlers carried it across the Atlantic.

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Britain industrialization working hours 19th century leisure

Industrialization first lengthened British work hours

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