CHAPTER 17



Chapter 17

Industrial Supremacy

Chapter Summary

Although some economists place the industrial "take-off" of America in the years before the Civil War, it was in the three decades following that great conflict that the United States became the world's leading industrial power. A fortunate combination of sufficient raw materials, adequate labor, enviable technological accomplishments, effective business leadership, nationwide markets, and supportive state and national governments boosted America past its international rivals. The industrial transformation had a profound impact on the lives of the millions of workers who made the production revolution possible. Some who were distrustful of industrial power turned toward socialism; others tried to organize workers into powerful unions. But, in these early years of industrial conflict, the forces of business usually triumphed.

Objectives

A thorough study of Chapter 17 should enable the student to understand

1. The reasons for the rapid industrial development of the United States in the late nineteenth century.

2. The specific impact of technological innovation in promoting industrial expansion.

3. The role of the individual entrepreneur in the development of particular industries.

4. The changes that were taking place in American business organizations.

5. The ways in which classical economics and certain ideas of Darwin were used to justify and defend the new industrial capitalism.

6. The critics of the new industrial capitalism and the solutions they proposed.

7. The conditions of immigrants, women, and children in the workforce.

8. The rise of organized labor on a national federated basis.

9. The reasons organized labor generally failed in its efforts to achieve its objectives.

Main Themes

1. How various factors (raw materials, labor supply, technology, business organization, growing markets, and friendly governments) combined to thrust the United States into worldwide industrial leadership.

2. How this explosion of industrial capitalism was both extolled for its accomplishments and attacked for its excesses.

3. How American workers, who on the average benefited, reacted to the physical and psychological realities of the new economic order.

Points for Discussion

1. How did the half-dozen main factors combine to produce America's impressive rise to industrial supremacy?

2. Which inventions of the late nineteenth century had the greatest impact on American industry and urban life?

3. Both the success-oriented novels of Horatio Alger and the utopian works of Edward Bellamy were best-sellers in late-nineteenth-century America. What might explain this paradox of Americans' wanting to read about both how great their country was and how greatly it needed to improve? (Document number 1 in the Study Guide will help here.)

4. Describe the evolution of the modern corporation in this era and its role in promoting industrial expansion.

5. The so-called robber barons both praised unfettered free enterprise and tried to eliminate competition. How can these apparently conflicting positions be reconciled?

6. What philosophies of the late nineteenth century allowed industrial tycoons to rationalize their methods and powers? (Document number 1 in the Study Guide will help here.)

7. Analyze the criticisms made of "laissez-faire" capitalism by some Americans of the late nineteenth century. Of the alternative visions suggested for America's economic future, which was the "best" and why? (Document number 2 in the Study Guide applies here.)

8. In what ways was the experience of industrialization a mixed blessing for the American worker? Describe the changes of the late nineteenth century in the nature of the workforce and conditions of the workplace. (Document number 2 in the Study Guide applies here.)

9. Describe the various attempts made during the late nineteenth century to create a national labor organization. Analyze the successes and failures of these individual organizations as well as the overall weaknesses of the American labor movement at this time.

10. Explain how the railroad became a symbol of progress in America.

Interpretive Questions Based on Maps and Text

1. Aside from the sparsely populated areas of the West, what part of the country lagged in railroad expansion? Why?

2. What geographic barriers and economic realities impeded railroad development in the West? How were they overcome?

3. Why was the Pullman railroad strike in the Chicago area so disruptive of the national transportation system?

4. What factors combined to make the region from Pittsburgh to Chicago into America's industrial heartland?

Essay Questions

These essays are based on the map exercises. They are designed to test students' knowledge of the geography of the area discussed in this chapter and to test their knowledge of its historical development. Careful reading of the text will help them answer these questions.

1. Explain the interplay among railroad development, raw materials, and industrial expansion. What area of the country led in these areas? Why?

2. How did the railroad contribute to the creation of a truly national economy in the United States?

3. What impact did a lack of railroad facilities have on the areas least served by railroads?

Internet Resources

For Internet quizzes, resources, references to additional books and films, and more, consult the text's Online Learning Center at brinkley12.

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