In the last three decades of the nineteenth century, the United Stated experienced an urban migration unlike anything seen in history up to that point. As factories began to spring up across the northern and Midwestern countryside, cities grew up around them. By 1900, one in every five Americans was a city dweller, and nearly seven million people inhabited just three cities: New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. (Henretta, 523) Former soldiers and immigrants flocked to the cities in search of jobs, wealth, and new opportunities. Fueled by urbanization and immigration, the process industrialization in post-Civil War America relied upon poverty and a declining sense of intrinsic value within the work force for its success. Nevertheless, America, while rapidly losing its rural roots during the late nineteenth century, was moving further away from Thomas Jefferson’s vision of a yeoman society. Prior to industrialization, America was primarily an agrarian, self-made nation, relying mostly on craftsmen and hand-made crafts. Artisans mostly made goods for nearby markets in relatively small quantities. The main unit of production was the family, typically owning all the tools needed for production. (Lecture) In pre-industrial American society, craftsmen worked the hours they pleased, with everyone working at their own pace. The pre-industrial work place was, for most Americans, an intimate setting, with artisans apprenticing pupils in discrete tasks with little, if any supervision. (Lecture) Most work in pre-industrial America was done in a face-to-face setting, and workers crafted their products from start to finish and were generally proud of the fruits of their labor. As more and more factories being built in the mid-ni... ... middle of paper ... ...rom industrialization and its subsequent problems in that they found a practical political platform in the Progressives, and massive strides were made in the way of better social organization by the social reformers W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells. Yet Carnegie, Gould, and the other ‘captains of industry’ profited handsomely and forever changed the American city, workplace, and psyche while providing little more than a job to their poverty-stricken workers. One product of industrialism proven to workers and entrepreneurs alike was that people have preferences and desires and the government should be used to ensure consumer protection. Ultimately, the process of industrialization may be considered a ‘revolution’ in that, unlike previous generations, people began to see themselves as well as their government as intrinsic instead of instrumental.
As technologies like steam developed industrialization was able to make use of the geography of the country. There was plenty of cheap land for farming so "American skilled workers tended to be both scarce and expensive" (Cowan 90) and it was necessary for people to create more efficient ways to work. Inventors created machines and methods that would require fewer people or people with fewer skills to compensate for the reduced labor force. This land rich environment lead to a working class that was for the most part transient. Men worked for a short time to make money to start up farms or businesses of their own. Women worked in factories to earn money to send home before they married and raised families. The American worker did not think of themselves as a permanent fixture in the factories, only as transient participant to earn what they need to move on to the next stages of their lives.
The mid-19th century is one of the major turnarounds in the history of the United States. That is the time when America became an industrial giant and emerged as one of the most powerful countries in the world. The Industrial Revolution changed the people’s way of living in the whole world, especially the United States, from hand and home productivity to machine and factory. America rose from a rural and agricultural country to an urban-industrial that introduced new technologies. The United States has been through a lot of ups and downs in spite of its emergence and three books tell the story of the Industrial America from three different perspectives.
The era that marked the end of civil war and the beginning of the twentieth century in the united states of America was coupled with enormous economic and industrial developments that attracted diverse views and different arguments on what exactly acquisition of wealth implied on the social classes in the society. It was during this time that the Marxist and those who embraced his ideologies came out strongly to argue their position on what industrial revolution should imply in an economic world like America. In fact, there was a rapid rise in the gross national product of the United States between 1874 and 1883. This actually sparked remarkable consequences on the political, social and economic impacts. In fact, the social rejoinder to industrialization had extensive consequences on the American society. This led to the emergence of social reform movements to discourse on the needs of the industrialized society. Various theories were developed to rationalize the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Various reformers like Andrew Carnegie, Henry George and William Graham Sumner perceived the view on the obligation of the wealthy differently. This paper seeks to address on the different views held by these prominent people during this time of historical transformations.
Industrial development of the late 18th century (around 1865-1900) is often characterized by it’s affluent, aggressive and monopolistic industrial leaders of the likes of men such as Andrew Carnegie, William H. Vanderbilt, and John D. Rockefeller. Due to their ruthless strategies, utilization of trusts, and exploitation of cheap labor in order to garner nearly unbreakable monopolies and massive sums of wealth, these men are often labelled as “robber barons”. At the same time, they are also often referred to as “industrial statements” for their organization, and catalyst of, industrial development; not to forget their generous contributions to the betterment of American society. Therefore, whether or not their aforementioned advances in industry were undertaken for their own personal benefits, one cannot ignore their positive effects on America. Thus, one can conclude that not only were the captains of industry both “robber barons” and “industrial statements”, but that that these two labels, in fact, go hand-in-hand.
The social and economic developments of the last quarter of the nineteenth century drastically changed the United States. The business world changed once industrialization was introduced to the world. Opportunities grew as people heard about the boundless American opportunities. Immigrants from all races flooded the cities which doubled in population from 1860-1900 (Barnes and Bowles, 2014, p. 34). However, as industries grew, owners prospered off the hard work of others. People started to feel they were not being treated fairly. People had to work harder and longer for their money. Barnes and Bowles (2014) noted “In the era of industrialization, millions of workers fought to simply have the right to work in safe conditions, and earn a fair wage” (p. 45). Many Americans feared that giant corporations would one day seek to restrict the ability of common people to get ahead and curtail individual freedoms. These fears were particularly strong among farmers, laborers, an...
Since factories started to incorporate machines through industrialization, the required long hours were not needed anymore. The working class wanted to have more freedom away from their jobs. “They also desired more free time to rest, eat their dinners, enjoy conversations and drink beer” (Green 162). Since the rest of America was enjoying freedom, the working class wanted to have a part in it as well. The idea of not being dependent on their wages, was extremely important to the working class at this time. Also with factories mainly supplying unskilled work, skilled workers started to feel degraded in their proud craft. “By the same token, proud American and European craftsmen viewed other forms of unskilled or menial labor as degrading” (Green 107). Although factories allowed their skilled workers to keep their jobs, they expected them to take a pay cut. Also with the pay cut, the skilled workers were forced to give up the skilled work that they took pride in. With workers becoming frustrated with not having freedom and, skilled workers not being treated fairly unions were
The Industrial Era enabled wealth, prosperity, and advancement in American society. But behind the wealth of a few, the new skyscrapers lining big cities, and the influx of new people, the Industrial Era possessed many dark underbellies, such as labor. Factory owners and industry giants treated their employees poorly, and subjected them to long hours, crowded workspace, and dangerous conditions. This is best exemplified in the New York City’s Triangle factory fire. Often times the middle class reformers, the Progressives, are remembered for their work to ameliorate the working class. These supporters worked hard to cause change, but often the efforts of the factory workers themselves are forgotten. Political and economic change occurred because the poor gave the wealthy and educated people a cause and purpose to fight for. Without the original efforts of the rebellious
Meyer, David R. The Roots of American Industrialization. N.p.: JHU, 2003. N. pag. Google Books. JHU Press. Web. 29 Sept. 2013
America reaped great benefits from the new wave of Industrialization during the 1890’s. There was an abundance of advanced, new technologies that made large-scale production easier and more achievable. These new factories produced more goods than ever before, and they were open to the middle-class. Yet this modernization was not all for the best, with the result being a decent amount of civil unrest. There were large issues with immigration. Everyday, there were thousands of Europeans who were coming to America looking for work. Despite the fact that the working conditions were awful and the wages weren’t much better, they were better than the work overseas. There was also the rising issue of anarchists becoming more and more of a problem as they were becoming more vocal. The worker’s strikes also contributed to some of the chaos of the Industrialization period. Strikes soon turned violent as the strikes came one after the other. Unemployment numbers continued to grow as the capitalists slowly grew richer. People such as Theodore Roosevelt, Jane Addams and Edward Bellamy and his followers each had different opinions with that what was wrong with industrialized America and how to fix it.
Industrialization had a major impact on the lives of every American, including women. Before the era of industrialization, around the 1790's, a typical home scene depicted women carding and spinning while the man in the family weaves (Doc F). One statistic shows that men dominated women in the factory work, while women took over teaching and domestic services (Doc G). This information all relates to the changes in women because they were being discriminated against and given children's work while the men worked in factories all day. Women wanted to be given an equal chance, just as the men had been given.
America was a time of rapid growth for people all across the country. The Industrial Revolution began a few years after the Civil War with the invention of steam powered machines. From there, America faced a time of massive expansion and modern industrialized cities popped up across the United States. While there was much success across the nation, such as manual labor becoming easier and a huge population growth, the negative effects of industrialization outweigh the positives. A few of the issues that made industrialization an atrocious time for many was the racism and segregation towards immigrants and unsafe and unfair working conditions/the deprivation of a regular childhood for kids across the nation.
The Industrial Revolution was a fundamental change in the production of goods that altered the life of the working class. Similar to most other historical turning points, it had skeptics, or people that doubted the change, and fanatics, people who saw the value in the change being made. The Industrial Revolution and the period that followed shortly after highlight these varying opinions, as people were more conflicted than ever about the costs of industrialization. While industrialization started in England as an attempt to capitalize on the good fortune they had struck, it quickly developed into a widespread phenomenon that made the production of goods more exact and controlled by higher level people. Many industries, such as the cotton and textile businesses, were previously run through organizations called “cottage industries”.
The Industrial Revolution began in England during the late 1700s, and by the end of its era, had created an enormous amount of both positive and negative effects on the world in social, economic, and even political ways. The revolution began to spread across the world, raising the standard of life for the populations in both Europe and North America throughout the 1800s. However, even with all of its obvious benefits, its downsides are nonnegotiable, forcing workers into horrendous living and working conditions, all inside of unkempt cities. While some might argue that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of the railroad system, it was actually a negative thing for society. Industrialization’s
Pre-industrial labor mostly consisted of farming and agriculture involving the entire family. In 1823, 97 percent of all Americans still lived in farms therefore the rural population and workforce was much larger than the urban population and workforce. The production and growing of food was used by the...
Industrialization is the process in which a society transforms itself from an agricultural society, farming, to a society based on manufacturing goods and services, using machinery. The Industrial Revolution acquired a colossal impact on societies, making forceful changes in the lives of individuals, and changing the social classes drastically, but not all classes benefited equally. Those who were lucky enough to be business owners or had the opportunity to obtain a better profession, were able to enjoy leisure time and comfort in many ways. Those who were uneducated and were limited to unskilled labor work, remained at the bottom of the economic ladder. Furthermore, the two classes that benefited from the Industrial Revolution were the “upper” and “middle” class, leaving the “lower” class to be the only one who suffers. In other words, the rich got richer, the middle class grew, and the poor remained poor. The deeper the Industrial Revolution grew, the more powerful the “upper” and “middle” class became. To remain at the top of the social ladder, the upper class had to continue being the wealthiest and most powerful.