4. The worldwide revolution in transportation (throughout the 1900's)

People and goods were transported from one part of the world to another with far greater speed than ever before. The means to do this consisted mainly of various land, sea, and airborne vehicles that used some form of the internal combustion engine. Such vehicles included automobiles, trucks, freight and passenger ships, and airplanes. Their widespread use resulted in a much greater global mobility of people, products, and resources across great distances and political and natural boundaries, creating a world in movement.

 

Ivan Soll is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His Top 10 list also focuses on large-scale, far-reaching developments. He sounds a note of caution based on rapid world population growth and technological development, referring to our "tendency to pollute, or otherwise destroy without using, the very resources we so desperately need."

1.

Advances in physical theory (early 1900's)
2. The development of nuclear energy (mid-1900's)
3. The rise of the Information Age (middle to late 1900's)
4.

The worldwide revolution in transportation (throughout the 1900's)
5. The development of antibiotics and other medical therapies (mid-1900's)
6. The development of genetics and molecular biology (mid-1900's)
7. The rise and fall of Communism in Europe (1917-1990's)
8. The explosion and concentration of the world's population (throughout the 1900's)
9. The depletion and pollution of the world's resources (middle to late 1900's)
10. The impact of globalization (middle to late 1900's)