ABSTRACT
A tension exists between the importance of the industrial revolution and the challenge of fitting it into a historical survey. In the early decades of industrialization - and there are signs of this in early industrializers like China today - leisure opportunities simply diminished. Results vary, not only by stage of industrialization but also by regional culture. Sketching the links between industrialization and wider changes in politics and culture is more challenging than dealing with social or family structure. In sum: industrialization changes culture in several standard ways, and it also raises some general new issues for traditional values. A sense of regional stages may help clarify the global angle: initial industrialization centered on Britain, then the West more generally, including the United States. The essence of the industrialization was the application of nonhuman, nonanimal power to the process of production, but also to transportation and other areas.
