Introduction

Telephones, electricity, and railroads. Corporations and stock speculations. The Bessemer process that turned iron into steel (a process first used in the Carnegie factories pictured below) and the distillation process that turned petroleum into kerosene. All of these factors were part of the mix of technology, law and enterprise that led American industry in the late nineteenth century to expand on a scale that dwarfed all previous business enterprises in any part of the world. In Chapter 19, we will examine the growth of this new industrial order and its consequences for Americans of races and classes. This exploding American economy bound the nation more tightly together, but it also caused the dissipation of a communal way of life. It created a class of incredibly wealthy entrepreneurs and financiers, but it also spawned a degree of poverty unseen in a rural, agricultural economy. It provided consumer goods and appliances that made life simpler for many households, but it also caused boom and bust cycles and an increased number of industrial accidents, both of which crippled many of her households and often sent children into the factories to help families survive. On a fundamental level, industrialization changed American work from a task-oriented to a time-oriented process and continued the process of separation between work, community, and home.

The Web activities for this chapter will examine the development of the industrial systems that changed both the American economy and culture.

Web Activities 

1.  Take a virtual tour of the Edison laboratory. How did Edison transform ideas into profits? What different roles did Edison play in the inventing process? In what ways did his organization follow the model of modern industrial systems? Now examine Alexander Graham Bell's Path to the Telephone. How does his process seem to compare to that of the Edison lab?

2.  Many historians have viewed Social Darwinism as the philosophical support for the business practices of industrialists such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt.

• Read this excerpt from Herbert Spencer's Progress: Law and Cause. Spencer is viewed as the leading advocate of Social Darwinism in the United States. How does he define progress? The site notes that Spencer specifically discusses race and class in this excerpt. What relationship do they have to his idea of progress?
• Now read Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth. How do his views compare to those of Spencer? How does he propose to solve the problem of the administÜ.eion of wealth?

3.  Read through the Chicago Historical Society's The Dramas of Haymarket. The site argues that the Haymarket riot seems almost inevitable when viewed in retrospect. Why does it believe that the riot makes a certain "dramatic sense" given the time and place in which it occurred? Focus particularly on Act II, which cover the riot itself. Now click on From the Archive and examine some of the primary source reactions to the riot. How does the perspective from the German newspaper differ from that of Captain Ward or the Mayor?

Additional Research Links

The Growth of Big Business 

• John D Rockefeller. Read this short biography of the founder of Standard Oil. How did he make his first money. Why did he decide to go into the oil business? What did he believe was the secret to his success?
• J.P. Morgan . Read the quotes on J.P. Morgan's deal with President Cleveland to save the United States Gold Reserves. Now scroll down to the links to the cartoons at the bottom of the page. What concerns do these cartoons address? What political biases do they exhibit?
• Advertising. Browse through these advertisements from Harper's Weekly, a leading magazine of the late nineteenth century. What techniques do these early advertisers use to sell their products? Who is their audience? What kind of life are they selling through these products?

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Systems of Labor

• 100 Years of Struggle and Success. Keeping in mind the bias of the site, click on 1900-1909 in this interactive photo essay. What struggles do these pictures recall? How do they connect to the processes of industrialization discussed in this chapter?
• The Homestead and Pullman Strikes. How do the different quotes and pictures used in this paper describe the two sides in these conflicts? How does each side present the workers and how do they present management?
• Syndicalism. The radical anarchist Emma Goldman explains the growth of the radical labor movement worldwide and the role of the American worker in this movement. What tactics does she endorse?