ABSTRACT
Since the industrial revolution spread from Britain to other parts of Europe and then well beyond, a balance between commonality and diversity has been central to comparative analysis. All industrial revolutions have had some essential common features. They obviously involved not only massive technological and organizational change but also redefinition of family function and alteration of the nature of work and leisure. Developments over the past few decades raised new opportunities, but also new challenges, in using history to understand ongoing industrialization. Analyzing contemporary industrial trends, clearly, requires a lively balance between grasping historical patterns—including their ongoing relevance—and dealing with major shifts in framework. Like any major transformation in the human experience, the industrial revolution has had very real costs, and some of these continue as well. Most obviously the industrial revolution continues in places like Brazil and China, where, while building on earlier, more limited precedents, it is really still just taking off.
