If Today's World is Modern, How Did it Get There?

I just discovered an interesting site - Cato Unbound.

An essay by Stephen Davies (11/2009) - How the World Got Modern - takes us through the maze of world history (sociology and economics included) to explain (possibly) how and why the world order exists today as it does with such questions as:

• How and why is the world we live in so radically different (discontinuous) from that of our ancestors?
• How and why did this radical discontinuity in historical experience come about?

At first, this article may not seem to fit into the general thinking of Climate Change or Desertification. However, if you consider that these conditions have evolved because of increases in global population and the demands placed on the environment, then this perspective MAY provide an interesting composite view of how we arrived at our present historical circumstance.