ABSTRACT
Changes in the industrial economies of western Europe and the United States were not as decisive as those surrounding the advent of industrialization in Russia and Japan between the 1880s and the 1950s. To speak of a second industrial revolution in the West may be misleading, for it downplays the unique significance of the initial conversion from an agricultural to an industrial economy that had already occurred. Instead, a number of developments simply completed the basic revolution in countries like the United States and Germany. Two crucial developments in the industrial West overshadowed the geographic refinements. First, more powerful technologies and production organizations spurred industrial output. Second, thanks to higher output and cheap goods from other societies, a large service sector began to emerge. The two new developments were, simply, the latest versions of the industrial revolution's essentials: technology and organization.
