Can't resolve 'babel-loader'

I am trying to configure my first node react app.

I keep getting an error that says "Can't resolve babel-loader".

Googling that error, I found a couple of suggestions which do not work.

The first is to add the following to my webpack.config.js

// resolveLoader: {
  //       modulesDirectories: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules'
  //   },

Trying that produces an error that says:

Invalid configuration object. Webpack has been initialised using a configuration object that does not match the API schema.
 - configuration.resolveLoader has an unknown property 'modulesDirectories'. These properties are valid:
   object { alias?, aliasFields?, cachePredicate?, descriptionFiles?, enforceExtension?, enforceModuleExtension?, extensions?, fileSystem?, mainFields?, mainFiles?, moduleExtensions?, modules?, plugins?, resolver?, symlinks?, unsafeCache?, useSyncFileSystemCalls? }

The next suggestion is to try:

resolveLoader: {
        fallback: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules'
    },

That produces a similar error.

Does anyone have any advice on how to get started with this configuration. Understanding the documentation is proving difficult - every second word is jargon and I can't find a reference point to find fundamental understanding of what needs to be done to get started in this setup.

via Mel