As one of the greatest inventions of human beings, the electric machine (EM) has realized the mutual conversion between electrical energy and mechanical energy, which has essentially led humanity into the age of electrification and greatly promoted the progress and development of human society. This paper will briefly review the development of EMs in the past two centuries, highlighting the historical milestones and investigating the driving force behind it. With the innovation of theory, the progress of materials and the breakthrough of computer science and power electronic devices, the mainstream EM types has been continuously changing since its appearance. This paper will not only summarize the basic operation principle and performance characteristics of traditional EMs, but also that of the emerging types of EMs. Meanwhile, control and drive system, as a non-negligible part of EM system, will be complementarily introduced. Finally, due to the background of global emission reduction, industrial intelligentization and transportation electrification, EM industry will usher again in a golden period of development. Accordingly, several foreseeable future developing trends will be analyzed and summarized.