Industrialization, Urbanization, Etc.

Late 1800’s

New Inventions, Innovations• Steel- bessemer process created steel

by pushing air into iron

• Led to growth of Pittsburgh, Gary, Cleveland

• Oil- Elijah McCoy- created a lubricating cup to oil the parts of machinery,

• McCoy and other inventors could receive a patent- guarantees an inventors right to make, use, or sell his or her invention

New Inventions, Innovations-Transportation

• Railroads– Transcontinental Railroad- linked the East and

West coasts of the United States– Created a system of standard gauges (width

between rails)- changed southern tracks to match northern tracks

– George Westinghouse invented a compressed air brake- allowed locomotive engine & cars to stop at the same time.

– Shaped pop culture- song Casey Jones in memory of Illinois Central engineer killed in crash (IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) Union Song later took the tune and changed the words to reflect labor concerns)

New Inventions, Innovations-Transportation

• Automobiles- only the wealthy could afford them in late 1800’s

• Airplanes- Orville and Wilbur Wright developed one of first working airplanes– Test flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina– Not widely used, first application was

military during World War I

New Inventions, Innovations-Communication

• Samuel Morse invented telegraph

• Alexander Graham Bell invented telephone– Operators connected callers- many were

women

– “pink collar jobs”

• Christopher Sholes invented typewriter– Typing pools- departments devoted to typing

– Also “pink collar jobs” filled by…..

New Inventions, Innovations-Inventions at Menlo Park

• Thomas Edison brought inventors together in one place

• Teams of inventors

• Light bulb

• Electric power plant

• Other advances in electricity

Innovations in Business• Corporations: organizers raise money

by selling shares of stock (certificates of ownership) in the company to investors– Investors receive dividends (a share of the

profits)

• Trust- a group of companies turn control of their stock to a single board of trustees, who run all the companies as one company.– Leads to less competition in the industry

Innovations in Business

• Railroads– Cornelius Vanderbilt bought up and

combined many smaller railroad lines to create more direct routes between cities

– George Pullman created luxurious sleeper cars & a factory town with nicer living conditions for his workers (plumbing, library, etc.) but strict control over their daily lives.

Pullman’s Town and Cars

flickr.com/photos/40179131@N00/2434087918 http://www.railswest.com/pullman.html

Innovations in Business

• Andrew Carnegie- used vertical integration (bought mines and ships b4 and after production of steel)

• J.D. Rockefeller- oil industry, used horizontal integration (bought other oil co’s) and created a MONOPOLY-

Innovations in Business• MONOPOLY- one company dominates

an industry so much that they control price and quality of products

• Mass marketing: advertising, brand names, packaging to sell products– Targeted nouveau riche- newly wealthy,

lived in cities, engaged in conspicuous consumption (show-off shopping)

New Social & Economic Theories• Laissez faire capitalism- govt. leaves

business alone– a free enterprise system (businesses

compete in a free market economy- consumers buy cheapest/best goods)

• Communism (Marx)- no private property, govt controls all property– Felt capitalism allowed the bourgeoisie

(owners of factories, etc) to oppress workers (the proletariat)

New Social & Economic Theories• Social Darwinism: by Spencer, idea

that society progresses thru natural competition, fittest rise to the top & become wealthy, unfit fail

• Eugenics- created by Francis Galton (Darwin’s cousin), scientific breeding to improve the human race

New theories

• Anarchism- August Spies- opposed all government, wanted cooperative communes among groups who control production and trade with each other

American Dream vs. Reality

• Horatio Alger- wrote books about rags to riches stories of hard work leading to success

• Upton Sinclair- “The Jungle” opposite about man who worked hard but still could not make it.

Reality

• Unequal wealth distribution (10% of people held 75% of the wealth)

• Working class- not doing well overall– Unstable employment-Sometimes work,

other times layoffs– Low wages, long hours– Unsafe conditions, no insurance

Working Class• Hierarchy of workers

– White native-born Protestants- well paid, skilled workers

– Skilled northern Europeans (Germans, Irish, etc)- craftsmen (tailors, bakers, brewers, shoemakers)

– New immigrants (Italian, S./E. European)- unskilled, dirty jobs (blast furnaces, docks)

– African-Americans: janitors, porters, only hired as scabs

Immigrants

• Old: Northern and Western Europe (Irish, Germans)

• New:

Immigrants

• Old: Northern and Western Europe (Irish, Germans)

• New: Southern & Eastern Europe sent the most immigrants after 1880.

• Chinese also came in late 1800’s• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882- said no

Chinese laborers could come to the United States

Urban Living Conditions

• Lived in tenements- houses converted into apartments

• Entire family lived in 1 room

• Some worked in sweatshops at home

Urban Living Conditions

• “Social geography of the city”– Center- business district & factories– Poor laborers lived closer to the center– Residential middle class housing in outer

city– Suburbs- wealthy, took streetcars to work

Slums vs. Ghettos

• Slum: poor neighborhood with various ethnic groups, some of whom lived near each other BUT they were not totally isolated from other groups

• Ghetto: poor neighborhood with one ethnic group that was isolated from other groups (African-American)

http://media.pfeiffer.edu/lridener/DSS/Addams/19ward.jpg

Workers Attempts to Organize

• Created Unions– Knights of Labor, created by Terence V.

Powderly: strategy was to organize all workers (skilled/unskilled, women/men, WASP/immigrant/African-American)

– Replaced by American Federation of Labor (Samuel Gompers)- organized skilled workers

• Strikes

Workers Attempts to Organize• Strikes

– Railroad Strike of 1877- led by American Railway Union, nationwide, in Chicago led to Battle of Viaducts on Ashland & 16th with men & women stoning police. Failed when federal troops sent in to put down strikers.

– Homestead Strike- Andrew Carnegie wanted to eliminate the union from his PA. steel factory, threatened to fire workers unless union agreed to lower wages. Federal troops came in to crush striking workers.

Strikes• Haymarket Riot- protest for 8 hour day,

bomb was thrown, police killed, 8 anarchists tried & convicted

• Pullman Strike- George Pullman’s “ideal” factory town fell apart in 1893 during a depression when he cut wages without lowering rent, American Railway Union under Eugene Debs joined strike, Pres. Cleveland called in federal troops to put it down. Debs later became a socialist.

Progressives

• Goal: reform (urban living conditions, worker safety, prostitution, alcohol, political corruption, poverty, etc.)

• Jane Addams- started Hull House in Chicago (settlement house to help immigrants and poor)

• Upton Sinclair (muckraker) wrote The Jungle to expose urban poverty, poor and unsanitary working conditions, unsafe meat, prostitution, etc.

The Jungle• Theme(s): contradicts “myth” of

American dream (even if worked hard, impossible for many to succeed)

• Characters– Jurgis: husband works hard still did not

succeed, “I will work harder!”– Ona- wife, innocent but forced into

prostitution– Marija- cousin, strong working woman

• Characters die, lose money, lose home