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Chapter 20: An Industrial Society

Chapter 20: An Industrial Society. Main idea: The growth of industry and big business changes the nation. The Growth of Industry. Through out the 1800’s, factory production expanded in the U.S. This happened because: Plentiful natural resources Growing population Improved transportation

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Chapter 20: An Industrial Society

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  1. Chapter 20: An Industrial Society Main idea: The growth of industry and big business changes the nation.

  2. The Growth of Industry • Through out the 1800’s, factory production expanded in the U.S. This happened because: • Plentiful natural resources • Growing population • Improved transportation • High immigration • New inventions • Investment capital • Government assistance

  3. Inventions and Advancements • Steel- New production process made steel more affordable to use- became a booming industry. • Thomas Edison- practical electric lighting • Alexander Graham Bell- telephone • Other inventions- sewing machine and the typewriter • Inventions opened the door for women in the work place and made life easier.

  4. Railroads Transform the Nation • Transcontinental Railroad- Spanned the continent, it encouraged people to move west and develop its economy. • Groups of Chinese and Irish immigrants, former slaves and ex-soldiers built the railroads. • Union Pacific-Central Pacific line was the first Transcontinental rail system.

  5. Railroad changes time and society • Before the railroad communities relied on “solar” time (calculations of the sun’s travel) • Railroad Standard Time: divided U.S. into 4 time zones. • Railroads also- 1. linked east and west.2. Helped settle the west.3. Weakened Native American hold on the west. 4. Gave people more control over the environment.

  6. The Rise of Big Business • Corporation- A business owned by investors who buy part of the company through shares of stock. (see advantages p. 594) • Oil and steel: read page 595 • The Gilded Age- A time of fabulous wealth- it referred to the massive wealth of the successful but also the masking of society’s larger problems. (Mark Twain & Charles Warner coined the term) • The South remains agricultural- sharecropping and low cotton prices kept poverty rates high.

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