• early modern era, from the renaissance to the French Revolution (1789)
  
• modern era or period starts from the point of view of historians with the French Revolution
• that is the definition the book uses so the one I will assume you are using unless you specify otherwise
  
• But what we often think of as modern (as in modern art) starts around 1900
• by that narrower definition of the modern age, it ends in the 1980s and we live in a post-modern era
  

• modernization is roughly when an agricultural society becomes industrialized and urbanized
• economic growth accelerates, real incomes rise, the majority of people no longer live in poverty
• modern societies choose people for positions based on merit, not family
• modern societies are universalistic--the same rules apply to everyone, both legally and in a free market
• everyone is equal, freedom of religion
  
• another characteristic of modernism is government bureaucracies that try to manage the country rationally
• people in modern societies prioritize making money over other values (are mostly what economists call rational actors)
• capitalism is characterized by:
• free market
• free movement of capital
• owners of private property can do almost anything they want with their property
• workers can be treated however is in the best interest of the business, if workers can be found to take the job

So does modernization inevitably lead to an industrial revolution?

• evidence suggests that in the Netherlands it did not
• the economy became modern but that did not result in sustained economic growth
• they ran out of opportunities for profitable investment
• urbanization was similar though less change in which cities were biggest in the Netherlands
  
• agriculture improved similarly, though more unevenly in the Netherlands
  
• peat in the Netherlands took the role of coal in England until the mid 17th century, when production began to decline
  
• the Netherlands was more universalistic and more of a free market
• what slowed innovation in the Netherlands was deflation and the high cost of production (due to high wages and taxes)

Industrialization seemed disruptive to modernization in its first stages

• At first it seemed that industrialization would take away the benefits of modernization for the poor
• in the first half of the 19th century industrial cities were not very modern--low levels of education
• there was little free market because workers didn't have money to spend and often had to spend their earnings at a company store

In China today industrialization seems to be leading to modernization rather than the reverse
Wrigley argues that the Netherlands was still an organic economy, but was peat that different from coal?  He says it wasn't running out
is energy more important to an industrial revolution than modernization?