Big Picture Questions

1. What did humankind gain from the Industrial Revolution, and what did it lose?
2. In what ways might the Industrial Revolution be understood as a global rather than simply a European phenomenon?
3. How might you situate the Industrial Revolution in the long history of humankind? How do you think the material covered in this chapter will be viewed 50, 100, or 200 years into the future?
4. Looking Back: How did the Industrial Revolution interact with the Scientific Revolution and the French Revolution to generate Europe’s modern transformation?