Rostow’s model of Stages of Development has been widely criticized by environmentalists and economic geographers for a variety of reasons. Rostow postulated his theory at a time before the impact of climate change and the importance of renewable resources was well understood. He is still, however, widely criticized by environmentalists because he equates the highest level of development with the mass consumption of resources.

Rostow’s model of Stages of Development does not account for deindustrialization at all. This is particularly interesting because deindustrialization in the developed world occurred almost immediately after Rostow published his model, meaning he was unable to foresee a development that was only a few years around the corner.

When you think of it, Rostow's stages are pretty intuitive. It all starts with traditional society, wherein there is little social mobility or technology, and a lot of agriculture. After meeting the pre-conditions, a society can then move into the take-off stage, wherein urbanization, industrialization, and technological advances occurs in response to external demand for raw materials and investment in production is secured. As take-off picks up speed, it becomes a drive to maturity, wherein diversification of industries, development methods, and a growing social infrastructure rise to meet the demands of the competition and expansion. Finally, an industrial economy takes hold, and social infrastructure gives way to accessibility and consumer culture: the Age of Mass Consumption

Because it drastically changed economic production, the Industrial Revolution transformed the nature of population distribution. The sweeping changes happened immediately because they were so closely linked to the drastic transformation in factory work. Beginning first and most noticeably in the Northern European nations, people moved more and more to large cities that sprang up inland based on rail networks and industrial centers.

The Industrial Revolution truly took off in England's Midlands, especially around the city of Manchester, after a few technological innovations in the textile industry. These made clothing, which used to be made at home expensively, cheap and easy to attain. This revolution caused new factory jobs to be available and reduced the need for people working on farms, which allowed people to leave the countryside and flock to cities.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution began in northern England. It spread fairly quickly to southern England and then spread throughout the continent via Belgium, northern France, and Germany.

By the first half of the twentieth century Germany, the United States of America, Russia, and Japan (along with France and the United Kingdom) were the major industrial centers of the world. China has only recently undergone its own rapid industrial revolution and is currently transitioning towards a consumer-based economy.

The Industrial Revolution arrived in Germany during the 1850s and quickly exploded. By the 1860s Germany’s economy was fully industrial and quickly catching up to Great Britain. In 1871 the German states were finally unified and industrialization progressed more rapidly, by the turn of the century the German industrial capacity was the strongest in the world.

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain in the first half of the twentieth century and quickly spread to the European continent; however, it did not take off as quickly in Russia. The reasons for this are primarily to do with the Russian social and economic situation compared to the situation in Western Europe at the same time. To put it simply, Russia had no urban working class, only rural serfs who were tied to the land they worked on. In 1861 the serfs were emancipated and Russia began its unwieldy movement towards industrialization. Progress was slow for the first two decades, but by the mid-1880s Russian industry was beginning to takeoff and in the 1890s it exploded as the Russian state deliberately involved itself in the development and ownership of manufacturing centers.

Henry Ford invented the Model-T, the first mass-produced automobile. He also popularized the use of assembly lines and mass production. The concept of the assembly line, and the cheap mass production it provides, is closely associated with Ford to the point where it is sometimes called “Fordism.”