From the Farm to the Factory-a Short Walk from Heaven to Hell
An Integrated, Interdisciplinary Thematic Unit on the Industrial Revolution Students must appreciate that truly "No man is an island", and that technological breakthroughs, more than any other factor in our human history, "revolutionize" -- or cause revolt against -- a former way of living, thinking, and interacting in a global society.
For centuries, our ancestors' lives were relatively unchanged: children could look to their parents, grandparents, -- and generations on -- and could predict quite realistically what the future would hold for them. The Industrial Revolution changed all this: the organizations of family, community, trade, philosophy, and politics would forever be altered.
Now, as we address such issues as cloning, overpopulation, environmental resource scarcity, etc., students must see that every action, invention, "breakthrough," forces a society to address and reevaluate the very humanities' questions of why we are here and how we should go.
For centuries, our ancestors' lives were relatively unchanged: children could look to their parents, grandparents, -- and generations on -- and could predict quite realistically what the future would hold for them. The Industrial Revolution changed all this: the organizations of family, community, trade, philosophy, and politics would forever be altered.
Now, as we address such issues as cloning, overpopulation, environmental resource scarcity, etc., students must see that every action, invention, "breakthrough," forces a society to address and reevaluate the very humanities' questions of why we are here and how we should go.