History has so many facts and periods that the big picture is often overlooked. There have only been a very few radical changes in the ways ordinary people have lived. The time periods above represent those big shifts.

Compared to the subsistence lives of hunter-gatherers or the early agriculturists, as in Jerico, we certainly do live better lives today. The first major human change (from a nomadic existence to that of a settled town) was a dramatic change in lifestyle. A settled life allowed for progress in many areas, like the development of writing. In turn, writing both enabled groups to develop a cultural heritage and it facilitated a centralized government ruling over large numbers of people. The larger groups brought protection from marauders. In return for peace, ordinary people were willing to allow leaders to tax them for centralized luxury spending along with necessary defense costs (like building town walls).

The last great empire of this type was British, which at one point had 1/4 of the world's population under its control. But the British Empire was different, in that it largely functioned as a way to sell the cheap machine-made goods produced in Britain. British leadership in the world was based as much on their Industrial Revolution technologies as on their far-flung empire. In fact, they made as much money from trade with their former colony of the United States as with the much more populous empire gem of India.

Starting with the first operating railroad in 1830, people in technologically advanced countries found their lives changed much more than in the previous 2000 years. The inexpensive automobile, pioneered by Henry Ford in America, gave ordinary people huge opportunities they had never had - like living a suburban lifestyle in a green mini-estate. Other technologies based on electricity enabled families to live without servants, another big change from all previous civilizations, one that former slaves/ servants have certainly welcomed!