ABSTRACT
The word modernization reflects the discontinuities of interest which have marked the work of American social scientists. Before the World War II, American scholars devoted their primary attention to the study of American society. The word “change” refers to the differences observed before and after a given interval of time. Without knowing in what respects a later social structure differs from an earlier one, would not know what changes to look for and explain. As European societies approached the “modern era,” men of letters came to think about differences of social rank with an awareness of a new society in the making. By “modernization” refer to a type of social change which originated in the industrial revolution of England, 1760–1830, and in the political revolution in France, 1789–1794. One can set the inception of the changes considered differently, and this is in fact advisable for certain purposes.
