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American Industrialism, 1875-1929 Resources
ADDITIONAL INDUSTRIALISM LESSON PLANS
- Symbols of the 1920s: New York City Skyscrapers in Photographs and Paintings
http://www.historynow.org/03_2007/lp1.html
Objectives: Students will examine images from the 1920s in order to analyze the influence of technology on America in the first decades of the twentieth century. Students will examine the rise of the city in the 1920s. Students will be able to compare and contrast new values with traditional values as exemplified by images of the era.
- The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 - A Story of Human Tragedy and Triumph
by Gerry Kohler
http://www.historynow.org/03_2007/lp2.html
Objectives: Students will examine primary documents to analyze the immediate impressions of eyewitnesses to The Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and the impact it had on their lives. Students will analyze primary and secondary documents to explain the effects of the fire on the city of Chicago. Students will select performance tasks (activities) which best suit their learning styles, or challenge themselves to attempt another. Each performance task is an objective in its own right. Words indicating specific objectives have been underlined throughout the "Performance Task" handout.
- Worker's Rights and Advances in Technology in the Nineteenth Century (4 lesson plans):
http://www.historynow.org/12_2006/teacher.html
- Teaching Future Historians: Lesson Plans using primary documents
http://dig.lib.niu.edu/teachers/gilded.html
Additional American Industrialism, 1875-1929 Resources
Introduction to Significant Industrial Reformers
- Industrialist: Andrew Carnegie
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/
PBS compilation of biographical information/timeline of Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie emigrated to the United States with his family and he worked to establish himself in the Steel Industry, ultimately becoming one of the richest men in America . He represents the penultimate industrialist, since his capitalist drive coincided with industrial technological innovations and governmental support of free market enterprise.
- Big Business: J.D. Rockefeller
http://archive.rockefeller.edu/#
J.D. Rockefeller rose to financial power through his monopolization of the oil industry as owner of the Standard Oil Company. Equally loved and hated, Rockefeller represents the dream and the disappointment of many Americans in the Industrial and Progressive Era as he both accumulated wealth and exploited workers. You should also have J.D. Rockefeller and Pullman, McCormick, Swift, Armour, Sears, and Montgomery Ward from Chicago
- Entrepeneur: Sarah Breedlove
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/walker_hi.html
PBS biography of Sarah Breedlove
Sarah Breedlove overcame poverty and prejudice as a sharecropper's daughter to establish the Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, specializing in women's cosmetics. Her success and philanthropy established her as one of history's leading black female entrepreneurs.
- Inventor: Victor Ochoa
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/scitech/impacto/graphic/victor/index.html
Smithsonian Institution biography and background of Ochoa, his inventions, and his social activism at the turn of the twentieth century.
Ochoa's life (1850-1945) reflects the fluidity of the U.S./Mexican border during the period, and though he never became an American citizen, his mechanical inventions and political relationship with Teddy Roosevelt determine his deserved role in American industrial history.
- Financier: J.P. Morgan
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/web10/features/bio/B14.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/1900/peopleevents/pande10.html
Two brief PBS biographies on J.P. Morgan.
Morgan represents the duplicity of American financiers, regarded by some as safeguarders of American financial stability, and by others as profiteers who benefit from American's hardships.
- Labor Leader: Mother Jones
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/jones/MJ-article.html
1901 Article on labor conditions written by Jones
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/majones.htm
Colorful biography of Mother Jones compiled by the Illinois Labor History Society
Mother Jones articulates the concerns raised by industrial labor sympathizers regarding workers' health, safety, wages, and living conditions. Mother Jones' involvement in so many of the key events in turn of the century labor history makes her a useful focus to illuminate the struggles between laborers and owners related to the rise of industrial interests.
Labor Movements:
General Historical Outline of American Industrialization
The Industrial Revolution in the United States was the result of innovations in social, political, economic, and technological spheres, nationally and globally. Increasing technology made nineteenth and early twentieth century factories more efficient and increased the demand for laborers. Technological developments in the mid-nineteenth century, including electricity, steam-power, and steel production, as well as the (not so much-this occurred during the early national period, the early 1800s, during the market revolution.) expansion of railroads fostered the profitability of factory economies. These factories required increased employment and factory cities drew men and women from rural agricultural communities and many European countries into urban settings. Immigrant workers responded to the call for more labor and the rise in immigrant populations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries became closely linked to the rise in the industrial economy. Agricultural practices grew in efficiency through the adoption of technology as well, and farm owners expanded their interests, emerging as agro-businesses, employing large migrant laborer populations throughout the turn of the nineteenth century.
These technological advances were fostered by governmental support for free market economies and pro-capitalist policies that ensured business owners' rights to negotiate labor contracts freely, to exploit natural resources without restriction, and to dominate competitors by cutting market prices and establishing monopolies. The government also subsidized the establishment of national transportation and communication infrastructures that enhanced corporations' ability to ship goods, control labor supply, and monitor national and global price indexes. Governmental support contributed to the rise of the industrial corporation at heavy environmental and social costs.
Increased job opportunities for low-skill workers drew thousands of immigrants and rural Americans to urban industrial centers throughout the United States . Low wages and poor living conditions resulted in the ghettoization of ethnic communities whose health care, education, and safety were often neglected by corporate bosses concerned with production and profitability. White middle-class Americans became increasingly concerned and proposed anti-immigration policies, as well as social reform policies funded by private and public sector monies. These two strains in early twentieth-century reformist impulses established tensions between anti-immigrationists and public welfare proponents that continue today.
Some of the reforms initiated in response to the Industrial Revolution include governmental anti-trust legislation, the rise of labor unions, the push for Women's Suffrage and the Temperance movement, and the emergence of the conservation movement. These groups were concerned with corporate manipulation of market prices and government contracts, corporate abuse of laborers, oppression of women in public and private sectors, individual and communal corruption through drink, and ecological devastation wrought by unregulated pollution and exploitation of natural resources.
Other groups supported the rise of industrialization because it increased American exports, improved national transportation infrastructures, and fostered increasing technological innovation. Inventors, financiers, and industrialists contributed to American modernization and globalization through the increase in capital generated by more efficient manufacturing techniques, stabilized financial markets, and low labor costs. These trends fostered America 's emergence as a global power in the early twentieth century.
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