Libertarians and the Industrial Revolution

Sheldon Richman, currently editor of The Freeman and a former colleague of mine at the Cato Institute in the early 1990s, provides interesting examples of a libertarian non-specialist thinking through some of the standard ideological arguments re: the industrial revolution, good or bad?, at his blog, here and here.

The posts star stalwart Hit and Run commentor Kevin Carson, with Sheldon's discussion and thoughts kicked off by this from Carson at his always-interesting Mutualist Blog celebrating "free market anti-capitalism." Carson is harder on the Industrial Revolution and the forces that might have pushed workers into the factories than many other--what Carson calls "vulgar"--libertarians.

[Updated with permalinks.]