The Industrial Revolution: Love it or leave it?
The Industrial Revelution was, indeed, a revolution. Not the typical, bloody, war-based event that many of us associate with "revolution", but a HUGE change in the human condition which occured over a relatively short period of time. The Industrial Revolution began in the late 1700's in Britain, swept through Europe, arrived as a "second wave" in the United States in the mid to late 1800's . Industrialization occured in Asia in the mid to late 1900's, is still underway in some third-world countries and has not even started in many even today.
Change is viewed in a positive way by those who benefit from it, but what about the under-priviledged, the minorities, women and children? The mass movement of human populations from agrarian, rural areas to urban centers and cities had huge sociological, psychological, political and economic consequences. The life style change from the farm to the city, loss of the extended family structure, changes from the home to the factory as the center of production, the degradation of the environment, the creation of a class society which includes blue collar and middle classes and the colonization of the world in the search for raw materials were incredible catalysts that have changed the course of history and still affect us today.
Change is viewed in a positive way by those who benefit from it, but what about the under-priviledged, the minorities, women and children? The mass movement of human populations from agrarian, rural areas to urban centers and cities had huge sociological, psychological, political and economic consequences. The life style change from the farm to the city, loss of the extended family structure, changes from the home to the factory as the center of production, the degradation of the environment, the creation of a class society which includes blue collar and middle classes and the colonization of the world in the search for raw materials were incredible catalysts that have changed the course of history and still affect us today.