For this clause, I am to identify a critical moment in history and explain its significance. I have been mulling this over for several months (proving that I can overthink just about anything!) but have finally decided to talk about the industrial revolution. A basic explanation of the Industrial Revolution is that the world moved toward mechanized processes of production and away from a life based on agriculture. In some ways, it gave people more options. There were more jobs and different types of jobs than had previously existed. (Before this, you had relatively few choices, especially if you didn't live in city.) There were more things to buy and they were cheaper. More people moved to cities. Farming even changed - becoming more of a business and less about subsistence only. Of course, working in a factory wasn't all that great. yes, it provided you with a paycheck but the hours were long and conditions often unsafe. Also, factory owners felt that, in addition to the factory, they owned the workers and would dictate how workers spent even the hours away from the factory. Away from farms and living in cities, people stopped celebrating agrarian-based festivals and holidays. I would say in the 50-75 years over which the industrial revolution took place, the pattern of life changed completely. What hours people slept, what they ate, what they wore, where they lived, who they met and married - all of this was different after the industrial revolution. It's hard to say that things were better before or better after - mostly they were just different. And I wonder if we are going through a similar revolution now and how it will all look in the rearview mirror of history someday.
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