Look at:
http://www.answers.com/topic/industrial-revolution
Excerpt: Way down the page.
"When was the Industrial Revolution?
The French coined the term Industrial Revolution in the 19th century as an analogy to their own political revolution. Although the phrase is in common use, it is not always clear what this phenomenon was or even when it occurred."
End excerpt
I would think that if you are writing now about the past i.e. the industrial revolution, you refer to it as just that.
Just as now we refer to the consumer Age, or the Oil Age. Maybe we are still in the Oil age. But there is a need now to name the current time as the "The Communication Age" or "The Internet Age".