Sources: Industrialization in the Modern World: From the Industrial Revolution to the Internet

Industrialization in the Modern World: From the Industrial Revolution to the Internet. By John Hinshaw and Peter N. Stearns. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2014.388p. (ISBN: 978-1-61069-087-4), Ebook available (978-1-61069-088-1), call for pricing.

Understanding where the modern world came from is a difficult task; John Hinshaw and Peter Stearns seek to make the task easier for college and high school students. The authors of this two volume work seek to "situate the Industrial Revolution into the context of World history" (xxix), meaning both historically and politically. Hinshaw and Stearns seek to achieve their ambitious goal, with an alphabetical listing of the various people, places, events, and other topics about the Industrial Revolution. These entries rang from explain about the "emancipation of the serfs (Russia)" to other things like explaining the IMF (international monetary fund) (243, 149). The authors also include people that had an impact on the period like James Hargreaves (214). Also, the authors include many primary source documents relevant to this area of history. The addition of these documents helps in setting the work apart from others. The scope of these entries and primary sources range from the origins of Industrialization to the dawn of the internet. Some of the documents included are ones like Mark Weisbrot's "Time to take a second look at our 'free trade' agreements" (619). Also, included are speech's made by world leaders about technology and the impact on society.

These entries tend to be short, most are around a couple to three paragraphs in length, however some of the large theme entries are a page or more; such as the entry on the "Cold War." At the end of each descriptive listing the author provides the reader with a 'further reading' recommendation. These sections help set the work apart from others, however there are not many books that take on the scope of information proved in this work. There are plenty of books that cover the many individual topics contained in Industrialization in the Modern World, as noted in the 'further reading' section, however there are few that cover such a wide range of in one title. In addition to the 'further reading' section these two volumes also include quality color photos for many of the entries in the book. These photos do a nice job of helping set apart this work from others, such as the Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in America. Industrial Revolution in American focuses only on the Industrial Revolution period from 1750 to 1920, and includes little photos and no color photos.

Overall, these two volumes provide the reader or researcher with good quality information about a wide variety of topics related to the Industrial Revolution and beyond. The additional primary sources included in this work set it apart from other similar works in the same field. These sources do well to supplement the information contained in each of the alphabetical listing. With the addition of this section, the book is suitable for college and university library collections. It also makes a great addition to any high school library as well.—Michael Hawkins, Library Associate, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio