In this quick activity, you’ll think about jobs that exist today that didn’t exist before the Industrial Revolution. This will provide you with a more tangible example of how much collective learning, new innovations, and the Industrial Revolution truly changed the world.

As you know, the world changed drastically after the Industrial Revolution due to collective learning and technological advances. In this activity, you’re going to brainstorm a list of all of the jobs you can think of that didn’t exist before the Industrial Revolution. Take about two minutes to do this. Then, pair up with someone in your class to compare lists to see if you approached things differently. Be prepared to share your list with the class.

Once the list is compiled, think about the following questions:

1. Look at the list of new jobs. Can you name any old jobs that these new jobs replaced?
2. Which, if any, jobs are brand new and didn’t replace anything?
3. Are there any jobs that no longer exist because of the Industrial Revolution?

The world has changed dramatically since the Industrial Revolution, and it continues to do so. New jobs will come to exist and old ones will disappear forever—the job you end up with might be one that we can’t even imagine today!

The growth of a worldwide middle class is a positive development in the modern world, but not all developments of the Modern Revolution have been positive. Acceleration has also led to ongoing damage to the biosphere and destructive wars. Thus, as with most change, there are both positive and negative consequences to this revolution. The fact that humans have avoided a population crash similar to the ones they experienced in earlier eras is important, but wars and the destructive power of weapons will require further innovation to control.

This video gives you the opportunity to take a closer look at the three forces that have accelerated the pace of change in the modern world: global exchange networks, competitive markets, and increasing use of energy. It will also help you understand the effects of these changes and why they represent a new major threshold of complexity.

Preview

The innovations of the Industrial Revolution allowed for the acceleration of the size and diversity of exchange networks, the size and power of competitive markets, and the use of fossil fuels. In the past 100 years, this acceleration has increased rapidly.

Key Ideas—Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch the video:

Part I

• What drivers of change were responsible for making industrialization go global in the last 100 years?
• How have networks changed in the last 100 years from what they were like at the time of the Industrial Revolution?
• How did commerce and capitalism help create a world of wage earners and city dwellers?
• How did the failure of communism in the twentieth century illustrate the power of competitive markets?
• How has global consumption of energy accelerated in the last 100 years?

Part II

• What are some of the indicators that suggest that the rate of innovation in the modern world is being sustained?
• What twentieth-century developments suggest that not all innovations are positive?
• What observations have led scholars like Paul Crutzen to suggest that the Earth has entered the Anthropocene epoch?

Thinking Conceptually

Do you think that you have observed any accelerating trends in your lifetime? Are there things around you that are moving at a faster pace than they were just a few years ago?

From 1750 to 1914, the Industrial Revolution changed our global economy. It also brought forth a ton of innovations and largely changed transportation, communication, labor, industry, and sources of energy around the world. Great Britain is considered the first place to be revolutionized, but due to advances in communication that enabled other countries to use it as a model, it didn’t last long as the largest industrial power.

The Industrial Revolution changed how humans produced and traded goods, it changed the landscape of work in the twentieth century, and it impacted global relations. Understanding the factors that led to the industrial revolution helps you understand many of the dynamics that exist in the industrialized world today.

Skimming for Gist

What made production in the Industrial Revolution so different from production at other times? Between 1750 and 1914, there was a huge shift in the way that goods were manufactured. An increase in energy sources and the shortening of trade lines dramatically changed the world. This revolution started in Britain and spread around the globe.

Understanding Content

By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. Before the Industrial Revolution, where were most goods produced?
2. What do historians J. R. McNeill and William H. McNeill argue helped transform the production and distribution of goods?
3. How did the concept of labor change in Europe between 1750 and 1914?
4. How far behind was Great Britain from Asia in terms of global manufacturing output in 1750?
5. Why was Europe’s manufacturing output relatively small compared to Asia’s in the mid-Eighteenth century?
6. What industry was the main beneficiary of coal in the early days of the Industrial Revolution?
7. How did people move around and settle during the Industrial Revolution?
8. What is the economic philosophy of mercantilism?

Thinking Conceptually

Think about and try to answer the following question: In many ways, it feels like the exponential increases in innovation and technology since the start of the Industrial Revolution are still happening today. Do you think the Industrial Revolution has actually ended?

Globalization is a huge topic that has massive wide range impacts all over the world. There are both upsides and downsides to globalization. One of the biggest positives has been a general improvement in people’s quality of life around the world. One of the biggest negatives is the adverse impact globalization has had on the environment. No matter what, however, the study of globalization helps us understand what we’ve gained and lost in getting where we are today.

In this video, John Green explains some of the benefits of globalization. Understanding how globalization impacted the world can help us understand how much past decisions affect our lives today, both in positive and negative ways. This can be informative when thinking about our place in the world today, as well as in the future.

Preview

In this video, John Green talks about globalization and the benefits the world has reaped from becoming more interconnected. He also touches on why studying history is important, following one t-shirt across the globe to show how complex trade and the movement of goods are in today’s world.

Key Ideas—Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch the video:

• Why has the scale of trade increased dramatically since the time of early civilizations?
• Why is cotton cheaper in the United States than in other countries?
• Why is global trade seen as anarchic and unregulated according to John Green?
• What does the International Monetary Fund, often called the IMF, do?
• Is the main market for many of the countries who are producing goods—such as China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Brazil—domestic or foreign?
• What are some of the positive impacts of globalization?
• What are some of the negative impacts of globalization?
• What are some of the impacts of globalization on culture?
• What does John Green say are the reasons for studying history?

Thinking Conceptually

Think about what additional benefits and drawbacks could be a result of globalization. In particular, what are some of the noneconomic benefits and drawbacks of globalization?

By the early twentieth century, much of the farmland in the American South had been damaged by the overproduction of cotton. This, in turn, left many Black farmers trapped in a cycle of poverty as their land produced less and less. George Washington Carver worked to revitalize both the soil and the farmer by promoting sustainable farming methods that were inexpensive and increased crop yield. By combining new ideas with techniques handed down through generations of farmers, Carver played a key role in launching the modern environmental movement.

Cotton transformed the economy of the United States and accelerated industrialization around the world. And yet, this progress had both an environmental and human cost. This biography of George Washington Carver highlights one scientist’s efforts to spread knowledge to the people and places left behind in an accelerating world. It also provides additional evidence to help your answer the Unit 9 driving question: to what extent has the Modern Revolution been a positive and negative force?

Read 1: Observe

As you read this graphic biography for the first time, review the Read 1: Observe section of your Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. Be sure to record one question in the thought bubble on the top-right. You don’t need to write anything else down. However, if you’d like to record your observations, feel free to do so on scrap paper.

Read 2: Understand

On the tool, summarize the main idea of the comic and provide two pieces of evidence that helped you understand the creator’s main idea. You can do this only in writing or you can get creative with some art. Some of the evidence you find may come in the form of text (words). But other evidence will come in the form of art (images). You should read the text looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the main idea, and key supporting details. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What were some challenges that George Washington Carver faced as a young man?
2. In what ways did cotton have a negative impact on Southern farmers?
3. How did Carver work to improve both the quality of the soil and the quality of life for Black farmers?
4. In the graphic biography, Carver and the plants he is working with are represented with bright colors and light, while the images get darker as you move away from the central image. Why do you think the artist chose to depict the scene in that way?

Read 3: Connect

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in this unit of the course. On the bottom of the tool, record what you learned about this person’s life and how it relates to what you’re learning.

1. What does George Washington Carver’s story tell you about the economic, social, and environmental impacts of industrialization? Who faced the biggest changes from industrialization?

To Be Continued…

On the second page of the tool, your teacher might ask you to extend the graphic biography to a second page. This is where you can draw and write what you think might come next. Here, you can become a co-creator of this graphic biography!

In this activity, you’ll take an object you purchased or consumed in the last week and trace what it took for you to get that thing. This will help you understand how the Industrial Revolution helped us have the interconnected society that exists today. It will also help you see how dependent the world is upon fossil fuels.

Industrialism massively shifted the ways in which goods were produced around the world. Think about and name some of the ways in which the world changed due to the Industrial Revolution.

In this activity, you’re going to take an object that you purchased or consumed in the last week, trace the history of what you choose, and then map it out so people can easily see the path. You should consider and map out the following:

• Where your chosen object originated.
• How it was made and the labor involved.
• The path it traveled to get to you.
• The distance it traveled.
• The way it got to you.

Once you’ve picked your object, you might need to do some research so you can trace the path the brought it from its place of origin to you. Remember to account for small details that may come up while you do your research. So, for example, if you chose a T-shirt, did you account for where the cotton was grown? How it got to the factory? The dyes used to color it? The thread used to sew it? The material for the label? The list goes on and on. You don’t have to chase down every last detail about your object, but it’s important that you at least get a sense of just how much is involved in bringing goods to consumers.

Be prepared to share your map with the class. Finally think about the following question: How much energy do you think was used to make and transport your object to you?