Chapter 18 The Rise of Smokestack America

1. Chapter 18The Rise of Smokestack America The American People, 6th ed.

2. The Texture of Industrial Progress

3. Technological Innovations • Advances in technology allowed production to be more efficient which in turn generated new needs and newer innovations • New power sources were at the heart of America’s shift to mass production; electricity was the key to a new worldview for most Americans

5. Railroads • Railroads were the first gigantic corporations in America • The government expedited the building of the railroads with generous land grants and business-friendly regulations • The high cost of running a railroad necessitated cut-throat business practices • The logistical tangles of the industry prompted development of professional management techniques

6. Integration • Vertical Integration: adding operations before or after the production process such as distribution; desires all stages of production • Horizontal Integration: the combination of multiple similar business ventures under one “umbrella”; desires a monopoly of a particular market

7. Urban Expansion in the Industrial Age

8. The Cities • The central cause of the phenomenal growth of cities in this era was their ability to attract newcomers from rural areas and abroad • Work and increased pay rates was the prime attraction • Rural life was often dull

10. The New Immigration, 1880-1900 • Over the course of the century, the sources of immigrants for the United States changed • “New immigrants” came from southern and eastern Europe • New agricultural techniques in these European regions removed the need for thousands of farm laborers

12. III. The Industrial City

15. Neighborhoods • Working-class neighborhoods clustered near the city’s center • Usually separated by particular ethnic groups • These areas were crowded, unsanitary, and dangerous • Community cohesion became the saving force for many immigrants

16. The Suburbs • The fringes of the city contained the houses of the middle class and the rich • Public transportation allowed them to work in the city center and live outside • The upper classes often had no idea what conditions the working class had to endure

18. Industrial Work and the Laboring Class

19. Ethnic Diversity • Immigrants made up a large portion of the working class in the late nineteenth century • The occupational patterns of the workplace are a direct result of the ethnic diversity of the times • Whites occupied the top tier, next came northern Europeans, next came the “new immigrants”, and finally came African Americans

24. The Nature of Work • A majority of Americans now labored in a factory setting or small sweatshop • Workdays were very long: ten hours a day, six days a week • Work was uncomfortable, dangerous, and usually repetitively boring; accident rates were high • Sending children into the work forces was a fact of survival for many Americans

27. V. Capital Versus Labor

28. Protests • Workers and employers constantly struggled for control of the workplace • Workers felt the right to control the pace of production in factories and developed strong-arm tactics to encourage solidarity within the shop • Protest came in the guise of absenteeism, drunkenness, general inefficiency, and quitting work altogether

29. Strikes • The most direct methodology to adjust conditions in the workplace was the strike • Strikes in the nineteenth century usually happened at the workplace, replacing neighborhood riots • As collective action spread, unions began to play a more active role in arbitration of grievances • Coordination between workplaces performing the same work led to uniform wages and hours