TY  - BOOK
AU  - Slack,Paul
TI  - The invention of improvement: information and material progress in seventeenth-century England 
SN  - 9780191757754
AV  - HC254.5 .S58 2015eb
U1  - 942.06 23
PY  - 2014///
CY  - Oxford
PB  - Oxford University Press
KW  - HISTORY
KW  - Europe
KW  - Great Britain
KW  - bisacsh
KW  - Manners and customs
KW  - fast
KW  - Social conditions
KW  - England
KW  - 17th century
KW  - Social life and customs
KW  - Angleterre
KW  - Conditions sociales
KW  - 17e siècle
KW  - Mœurs et coutumes
KW  - Electronic books
N1  - Includes bibliographical references and index
N2  - The idea of improvement - gradual and cumulative betterment - was something new in 17th century England. It became commonplace to assert that improvements in agriculture, industry, commerce, and social welfare would bring infinite prosperity and happiness. The word improvement was itself new, and since it had no equivalent in other languages, it gave the English a distinctive culture of improvement which they took with them to Ireland, Scotland, and America. Slack explains the political, intellectual, and economic circumstances which allowed notions of improvement to take root
UR  - https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=882616
ER  -