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Industrial Revolution

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Jeremiah Warren
Professor Bentley
Hist. 202
September 20, 2015
Industrialization Paper
Prompt: Were the benefits of industrialization worth the costs for most Americans? After reading Jonathan Rees’ book, “Industrialization and the Transformation of American Life” the ways that America changed during the industrialization period are presented clearly and strongly. The book speaks about everything that happened in that time period from immigration to business corruption. Professor Rees really knew what he was talking about in this book and he gives good information for the reader to learn about. In the first chapter, Rees speaks about the many different types of industrialization in America at the time. The first one is of course steel seeing as that was the biggest part of the industrial movement during that time period. Steel was so popular then because it made new technology that people had never seen used. It made new railroads that were durable and went further. The main founder of steel was Andrew Carnegie. He was the one who invented steel and led the way for all of the other railroad companies to start advancing their rails and stretching them across America. “Steel mills are perhaps the quintessential example of late nineteenth century industrialization because of their importance to the American economy and because of their dependence upon mechanization.” This Statement backs up everything that was previously stated. This one sentence shows how steel was the number one material in that time. It also shows how important steel was to the advancement of everything else. The second chapter speaks about labor unions and their effects on the industry. It speaks about the way that the unions started and what their ultimate goal for workers in America was. It also speaks about the many different unions and how their approaches were similar and different to other groups. The first group it speaks about is the Knights of Labor. It speaks about how they began and their downfall after their first few months together. The group was large and ready to many things but they had stopped growing because they stopped accepting applications for the simple fact that they couldn’t process the ones they already had. They also attacked Gould’s railroad many times and they lost each time. The next union it speaks about is the American Federation of Labor. It speaks about the group’s founder and its success. The union was such a success that it is still around today. It is known now as AFL-CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations. It is one of the largest labor federations today. This chapter shows how labor unions helped to advance the American labor system; we still see the ever changing effects of early labor unions today in the way the new system works. The following chapter speaks about Immigration and the effects it had on American life. One of the biggest pieces of this section is the piece about the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act applied to all working Chinese immigrants. It made it so that they couldn’t work in America; therefore they had no way to live in the country. It singled them out because the lawmakers of that time believed that the Chinese coming to America “endangers the good order of certain localities.” This had a bad effect on America’s relationship with China, an outcome that we see later on in history during WWII. All of the immigration laws that were passed and enforced during this time period left it so that there would only be American workers in factories. This left a problem since people were starting to refuse to work in the factory conditions with the low wages that they were receiving. This made some of the laws get repealed so that the factories could have workers that wouldn’t complain about their conditions or their wages. These workers were made up of mostly immigrants for a time being. The Chapter on urbanization talks about how people lived in the large cities that were being built during that time. It speaks about the poverty and the crimes that had taken place during that time. It shows how people lived and got along during this time. Most people were poor and their families lived in small apartments with other families. A lot of workers in these cities were either working in factories or they were construction workers building the many large buildings that we see in our cities today. Other states like Colorado and Utah had workers in the coal mines and other places mining for resources that were used to power the mills that were used during the industrialization period. This chapter shows that the hardships that poor Americans went through during that time were worth it since their families could be fed and go on to live good lives. The chapter on the West is just how it sounds. It speaks of the west and what people did when they went to live in the western states such as Colorado, Utah, California and other states. It also speaks about how people treated the land and the animals that were there when they went and settled in the west. It speaks about how factories and other things were built when they got there to produce they materials that they were mining and producing. These places became large and important to America over time. The main places that became important are places like Colorado, California, Idaho, and Utah. There was also an education system set up for Native American children to learn different skills and trades so that they could help the country advance further. The Environment is what is spoken about in the next chapter. It speaks about how certain states used their environment’s resources and how the states became known for those things. It also speaks about the founding of the National Parks. This chapter states that most of the destruction of wildlife in these places was because of the economy growing. The clearing of land came with the settlement on those areas and caused mass deforestation that led to bare land open for the building of new structures and cities. This chapter may cause people to think that the cost was large and not worth the loss for American life, but it really was. It helped the big cities that we see today grow to the sizes they’re at now. The next chapter speaks about the main thing during the industrialization period; Transportation. Transportation during this time was highly important since the economy was growing and people were starting to need to get across the country faster. The chapter first speaks about railroads which connected the east coast to the west coast. It also speaks about the benefits of the train and steel railroads. The next thing it talks about is the steamboat, another big invention of the time. Steamships connected the western hemisphere to the eastern hemisphere. Although the two were already connected, the steamship allowed for people to get from one continent to another faster than before. This was one of the most important parts of the industrialization period and it has led the way for more things to be invented and introduced into American life. The final chapter is about the politics of industrialization. This chapter speaks about the many different things that occurred between the richest men during that time period. It also speaks about how those men got to be where they were and the things they did to get there. The politics of industrialization may be something that Americans could’ve lived without but the competition between the rich in that time period helped America advance faster than it would have without any competing companies. Overall, this book has shown me that most of the benefits of the industrialization period were worth it. The things that happened in that time helped America be where it is at today. America has come a long way from where we were in that time but so have other places. It is important for the new generation to learn from the old ones how to do the certain things that will help the country advance further than others in the upcoming years.

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[ 1 ]. Jonathan Rees, Industrialization and the Transformation of American Life (New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2013), 13.
[ 2 ]. Rees, 27

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