Until recently most historians spoke very critically of the Industrial Revolution. They 【B1】 that in the long run industrialization greatly raised the standard of living for the 【B2】 man. But they insisted that its 【B3】 results during the period from 1740 to 1840 were widespread poverty and misery for the 【B4】 of the English population. 【B5】 contrast, they saw in the preceding hundred years from 1640 to 1740, when England was still a 【B6】 agricultural country, a period of great abundance and prosperity. This view, 【B7】 . is generally thought to be wrong. Specialists 【B8】 history and economics, have 【B9】 two things: that the period from 1640 to 1740 was 【B10】 by great poverty, and that industrialization certainly did not worsen and may have actually improved the conditions for the majority of the populace.