Name:
The Rise of Industrial America, 1865-1900
Lecture Questions
- What is industrialization?
- What were the factors that allowed the U.S. to Industrialize?
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What economic, lifestyle, and national changes did the railroads help to
bring about?
Describe the positive and negative elements of the federal government
providing land grants to the railroads. Then, in your opinion, answer the
following: was it appropriate for the federal government to provide such
subsidies to the railroads? Why or why not?
Compare the changes that industrialists Rockefeller and Carnegie
brought about that revolutionized the way businesses attempted to
control particular industries.
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How did conservative economic theories such as laissez-faire, Social
Darwinism, and the Gospel of Wealth prevent government involvement in
regulating industry?
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What impact did industrialization have upon the following groups:
millionaires, the middle-class, and wage earners?
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Compare the tools that both management and labor used during times of
industrial “warfare.”
How is the Pullman Strike an example of why it was often difficult for
labor unions to not only to exist but often win their grievances?
-
Explain the factors that led to an increase in immigration to the U.S.
Why were many Americans fearful of immigration? How did Nativists
attempt to restrict immigration?
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Provide examples of how cities were changing due to urbanization.
The Rise of Industrial America, 1865-1900
What was industrialization?
1. Production by machine rather than by hand.
2. Involvement of an increasing proportion of the work force in manufacturing.
3. Production concentrated in large, intricately organized factories.
4. Accelerated technological innovation, emphasizing new inventions.
5. Expanded markets, no longer local and regional in scope.
6. Growth of a nationwide transportation network based on the railroad, along
with a communications network based on the telegraph and telephone.
7. Increased capital accumulation for investment in expansion of production.
8. Growth of large enterprises and specialization in all forms of economic
activity.
9. Steady increase in the size and predominance of cities.
What were the factors contributing to industrialization in the U.S.?
1. Natural resources
2. Labor supply
3. Growing population
4. Capital
5. Technology
6. Pro-Business government
7. Entrepreneurs
Business & Industry
Railroads
Railroads possibly had the greatest impact on American economic life, daily
life, and the promotion of the linking of the entire nation.
Economic Changes
Market for goods
Mass production
Mass consumption
Economic specialization
Growth of other industries
Coal, Steel
Lifestyle Changes
Time zones
Communication
National Changes
Expansion of the West
National Market
Federal Land Grants
The federal government, recognizing that western railroads would lead the way
to settlement, gave huge subsidies in the form of loans and land grants. Over
80 companies received more than 170 million acres of public land
Positives
Increase the value of government lands, carry the mail, and transport troops
Negatives
Hasty and poor construction
Widespread corruption
Credit Moblier
Railroads ½
Protests
Transcontinental Railroads
Promontory Point, Utah
1900
Federal subsidies
Other Industrial Empires
The Steel Industry
Henry Bessemer, William Kelly
Great Lakes Region
Andrew Carnegie
Vertical integration
U.S. Steel Corporation
The Oil Industry
Edwin Drake
John D. Rockefeller
Standard Oil Trust
Horizontal integration
Trusts
Industrial trusts
Antitrust Movement
Antitrust Act (1890)
Laissez-Faire Capitalism
The idea of government regulation of business was alien to the prevailing
economic, scientific, and religious beliefs of the late 19th century.
Conservative Economic Theories
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
“invisible hand”
Laissez-faire
Monopolistic trusts
Social Darwinism
Charles Darwin
Herbert Spencer
Social Darwinists
Social Darwinism
William Graham Sumner
Gospel of Wealth
Protestant work ethic
Gospel of Wealth
Technology and Innovations
Vital to industrial progress were the inventions that led to greater productivity
in the workplace and a larger variety of mass-produced goods in the home.
Inventions
Samuel F. B. Morse, telegraph
Cyrus W. Field, transatlantic cable
Alexander Graham Bell, telephone
Typewriter, cash register, calculating machine, adding machine, camera,
fountain pen
Edison and Westinghouse
Thomas Edison
Menlo Park, New Jersey
Phonograph, incandescent lamp, dynamo, mimeograph machine, motion
picture camera
George Westinghouse
High-voltage alternating current
Marketing Consumer Goods
R.H. Macy
Frank Woolworth Five and Ten Cent Store
Sears, Roebuck
Montgomery Ward
Kellogg
Post
Advertising
Impact of Industrialization
The growth of American industry raised the standard of living for most people,
but it also created sharper economic and class divisions among the rich, the
middle class, and the poor.
The Concentration of Wealth
10%
Millionaires
Horatio Alger Myth
Horatio Alger Stories
Reality
The Expanding Middle Class
White-collar workers
Middle management
Professionals
“Middle-class”
Wage Earners
2/3
David Ricardo
$380
Working Women
1/5
Clerical work
Labor Discontent
Child Labor
The Struggle of Organized Labor
The late 19th century witnessed the most violent labor conflicts in the nation’s
history. So common were violent labor conflicts that many feared the country
was heading toward open class warfare between management and labor.
Industrial Warfare
Cheap labor
Scabs
Lockout, blacklists, private guards, state militia, court injunctions
Political action, strikes, picketing, boycotts, slowdowns
Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
President Hayes
Attempts to Organize National Unions
National Labor Union
Knights of Labor
Haymarket bombing
American Federation of Labor
Samuel Gompers
Strikebreaking in the 1890s
Homestead Strike
Pullman strike
George Pullman
American Railway Union, Eugene V. Debs
President Cleveland
Socialist Party
3%
A Nation of Immigrants
From 1850 to 1900, the US population increased from 23.2 million to 76.2
million, with 16.2 million of those being immigrants.
Growth of Immigration
“Push”
“Pull”
Steamboats
“Old” Immigrants and “New” Immigrants
“Old”
“New”
Restricting Immigration
1870s
Chinese Exclusion Act
Ellis Island
Nativists
15%
Urbanization
Urbanization and industrialization developed simultaneously as two sides of
the same coin. Cities provided both a central supply of labor for factories and
also a principal market for factory made goods. By 1900, 40% of all Americans
lived in towns or cities.
Urbanization
Changes in the Nature of Cities
Streetcar cities vs. walking cities
Electric trolleys, elevated railroads, and subways
Income segregation
Skyscrapers
Steel skeleton & elevator
Ethnic neighborhoods
Slums, tenement apartments
Dumbbell tenements
Overcrowding, disease
Ethnic neighborhoods
Residential Suburbs
Europe vs. US
Suburbs
Boss and Machine Politics
Political machines
Political boss
Tammany Hall
Graft
Boss Tweed
Awakening of Reform
Settlement Houses
Jane Addams
400
Social Gospel
Family strains
federal government providing land grants to the
railroads. Then, in your opinion, answer the following:
was it appropriate for the federal government to
provide such subsidies to the railroads? Why or why
not?