Introduction: Defining the Industrial Revolution -- 1. The First Phase, 1760-1880: The West Leads the Way. 1. Britain's Revolution: New Processes and Economic Transformation. 2. New Causes: Why Did the Industrial Revolution Happen, and Why Did It Happen in Eighteenth-Century Britain? 3. The Industrial Revolution in Western Society. 4. The Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution. 5. The Industrial Revolution Outside the West -- 2. The Second Phase, 1880-1950: The New International Cast. 6. The Industrial Revolution Changes Stripes. 7. The Industrial Revolution in Russia. 8. The Industrial Revolution in Japan. 9. New Developments in Western Societies: Redefinitions of the Industrial Economy. 10. The Industrial Revolution in International Context -- 3. The Third Phase, 1950s-1990s: The Industrialization of the World. 11. The Industrial Revolution in the Past Half Century. 12. New Industrial Revolutions. 13. A Postindustrial Revolution? 14. The Less Industrial World: Evolution and Exploitation. 15. International Industry -- 16. Conclusion

The industrial revolution is generally recognized as a major development in world history. Even so, the study of it is routinely handled as simply part of Western European history or as part of individual national histories. Peter Stearns offers a genuinely world-historical approach, looking at the international factors that touched off the industrial revolution and at its global spread and impact. Stearns begins with an examination of industrialization in the West, but he also treats later cases in other societies - including Russia, Japan, and the United States - providing the comparative analysis usually lacking in single-nation treatments. Although Stearns defines the essence of industrialization in terms of technology and economic organization, he pays substantial attention to larger social results, especially changes in the experience of work and shifts in family functions and gender roles. The Industrial Revolution in World History seeks to build on recent scholarly advances to include more fully international and more human views in our understanding of the industrial revolution. This book will be particularly useful for students of world history and economics as well as for those seeking to know more about the global implications of what is arguably the defining socioeconomic event of modern times.