Reference
- Industrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution refers to the period between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries during which western Europe, and later the United States, changed from an agrarian, handicraft economic system to an industrial system based on mechanical manufacturing. The Industrial Revolution began in England in 1760 and was largely confined there until about 1830, after which Britain eased its restrictions on the export of machinery and skilled labor, leading to the rapid growth of industrialization in Belgium and France. By 1848, these countries had become industrial powers. Industrialization did not take hold in Germany, however, until 1870, after which the country quickly grew to outstrip Britain in steel production and to become the world leader in chemical industries. Countries in southern and eastern Europe were similarly slow to industrialize. In the United States, the Industrial Revolution began in the early 1800s with the founding of textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts.
The Industrial Revolution, which is usually dated from 1760 to 1850, featured massive technological, economic, and social changes. Among these were the use of new basic materials for manufacture, particularly iron and steel; the use of new power sources, including coal, steam, electricity, and petroleum; new machine technologies, including the invention of the spinning jenny and the power loom, capable of mass production; the introduction of the factory system, which regulated and specialized labor; new transportation and communication systems, including railroads, steamships, automobiles, airplanes, telegraph, and radio; and the application of scientific principles to industry.
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The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution: A History in Documents uses a wide variety of primary source documents to chronicle a period of great international social and technological change that began in England in the 18th century. Improvements were made to the steam engine that meant that many tasks thathad been done by hand in the past could be mechanized. With locomotives and steamships, goods could now be transported very quickly and within a reasonably predictable time. Other changes included the use of iron and steel, invention of new machines that increased production (including the spinningjenny), development of the factory system, and important developments in transportation and communication (including the telegraph). Thay all led to agricultural improvements, a wider distribution of wealth, political changes reflecting the shift in economic power, and sweeping social changes. Thisbook relies on primary sources such as personal diaries, advice books, poems, business reports, letters, photos, and essays to tell the story behind this rapidly changing period and its far-reaching effects.
The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History
As editor Kenneth E. Hendrickson, III, notes in his introduction: "Since the end of the nineteenth-century, industrialization has become a global phenomenon. After the relative completion of the advanced industrial economies of the West after 1945, patterns of rapid economic change invaded societies beyond western Europe, North America, the Commonwealth, and Japan." In The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History contributors survey the Industrial Revolution as a world historical phenomenon rather than through the traditional lens of a development largely restricted to Western society. The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History is a three-volume work of over 1,000 entries on the rise and spread of the Industrial Revolution across the world. Entries comprise accessible but scholarly explorations of topics from the "aerospace industry" to "zaibatsu." Contributor articles not only address topics of technology and technical innovation but emphasize the individual human and social experience of industrialization. Entries include generous selections of biographical figures and human communities, with articles on entrepreneurs, working men and women, families, and organizations. They also cover legal developments, disasters, and the environmental impact of the Industrial Revolution. Each entry also includes cross-references and a brief list of suggested readings to alert readers to more detailed information. The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History includes over 300 illustrations, as well as artfully selected, extended quotations from key primary sources, from Thomas Malthus' "Essay on the Principal of Population" to Arthur Young's look at Birmingham, England in 1791. This work is the perfect reference work for anyone conducting research in the areas of technology, business, economics, and history on a world historical scale.
The Industrial Revolution in World History
The industrial revolution is generally recognized as a major development in world history. Even so, the study of it is routinely handled as simply part of Western European history or as part of individual national histories. Stearns offers a genuinely world-historical approach, looking at the international factors that touched off the industrial revolution and at its global spread and impact. In this revised third edition, The Industrial Revolution in World Historybegins with an examination of industrialization in the West, but it also treats later cases in other societies-including Japan, Russia, and the United States, as well as newly revised sections on Asia and Latin America-providing the comparative analysis usually lacking in single-nation treatments. Although the text defines the essence of industrialization in terms of technology and economic organization, it pays substantial attention to larger social results, especially changes in the experience of work and shifts in family functions and gender roles. Including a new chapter on global environmental impact, the book seeks to build on recent scholarly advances to include a more fully international and human perspective in our understanding of the industrial revolution. The third edition also features fully revised sections on globalization, causation, and non-Western societies, further strengthening Stearns' discussion of complex industrial and international trends.
Smokestack Nation: The Industrial Titans
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Trace the process by which the U.S. rose from developing nation status in 1865 to become the world's greatest industrial power by 1900. Study the unfolding of the American industrial revolution; the advent of big business in the railroad, steel, and oil industries; and the concurrent explosion of consumerism and advertising.
The Industrial Revolution and Modernity
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowZoom in on an obscure corner of Europe in the 18th century, where the burning of coal served as the necessary spark to launch the world into modernity. Find out why Britain was in such a good position to become a global powerhouse during the Industrial Revolution, and watch as the railroads altered the landscape of countries around the world.
The Industrious Revolution: Demand Grows
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowExplore the two centuries from 1600 to 1800 known as the industrious revolution." First, examine the early rise of the first factories (which guilds and states initially opposed). Then, study the slow change of the household economy, consumption patterns, and consumer behavior (including the introduction of cotton cloth)."