The Industrial Revolution

Steam power and mechanized production transform Britain, then the world — the biggest material change in human life since agriculture.

Beginning in British textile mills, industrialization spread across Europe and North America. It created unprecedented wealth, urbanization, pollution, and exploitation in roughly equal measure.

Perspective

The Industrial Revolution is when the hockey stick begins — exponential growth in population, GDP, CO2 emissions, and inequality all start here. We are still living in its consequences, both the miraculous and the catastrophic.