There's a fascinating book containing short first-person accounts of living through the industrial revolution called Pandaemonium: Coming of the Machine as Seen by Contemporary Observers edited and with notes by Humphrey Jennings. It covers 1660-1886, and it's one of the few books that genuinely blew my mind. It's extremely accessible because of the first-person nature of the accounts, and I think one of the reason it's so compelling is that you can feel the change sweeping through so many aspects of daily life. I find it a very interesting lens through which to look at the current digital revolution.