ABSTRACT
Beginning around the time of the American and French revolutions and the Enlightenment, which elevated reason above faith, the Industrial Revolution would create mass society. It would bring much to improve life: cheap cotton for clothing, cheap pottery for dishes, mass produced furniture, cheap coal to fuel factories, cheap transportation for people and goods. The Industrial Revolution at last would give most people the chance to live as only a few had lived. The centuries of dependence on handicrafts or of doing without were swiftly passing.
