The Industrial Revolution

I feel that the industrial revolution was a very important sudden event in world history. Without it, we would have never been nearly this advanced in trade, manufacturing, and even communication today. The industrial revolution shaped the way of life that most Americans have today, a slightly urban, middle class lifestyle. It was interesting to find out how our world changed this way, and how quickly it happened. In England in the 1700's, advancements in technology had created the factory job-setting, where huge amounts of people had transitioned from being independent in rural areas to being interdependent in an urban environment. It was kind of eye-opening to realize that our way of life has really only been around a couple hundred years, and how many people contributed to making it happen.