Henry de Beltgens Gibbins

Henry de Beltgens Gibbins wrote the textbook that taught English economic history to a generation. The Industrial History of England, published in 1890, went through edition after edition because it did something new for schools: it treated the subject as a story with causes rather than a list of inventions and dates. English Social Reformers, from 1892, is the companion volume, running from the early factory inspectors to the cooperative movement. The Economics of Commerce came later and is a plain manual for people going into trade. Gibbins took a doctorate, taught, and edited a social questions series for Methuen. He lived from 1865 to 1907, and the work stops there for that reason.