Until recently most historians spoke very critically of the Industrial Revolution. They admitted that in the long run industrialization greatly raised the standard of living for the average man. But they insisted that its immediate results during the period from 1750 to 1850 were widespread poverty and misery for the bulk of the English population. By contrast, they saw in the preceding hundred years from 1650 to 1750, when England was still a completely agricultural country, a period of great abundance and prosperity. This view, however, is generally thought to be wrong. Specialists in history and economics, have shown two things: that the period from 1650 to 1750 was marked by great poverty, and that industrialization certainly did not worsen and may have actually improved the conditions for the majority of the populace.