Industrialization in the United States was driven by innovators like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. Their use of mass production techniques and new technologies like electric light helped drive down costs and transform consumer culture. The development of railroads, canals, and steamboats further fueled industrialization by connecting industries across the country and enabling the transportation of raw materials and goods. As a result, cities grew rapidly in the late 19th century and urbanization changed nearly all aspects of American society and culture.

1. By: Lynnette Rheault

2.  Henry Ford
◦ Mass Production
 Made products faster and more efficient
 Made the products cheaper in price
 Henry Ford - America the Story of Us
 Thomas Edison
◦ Electric Light
 Allowed businesses to stay open late.
 Thomas Edison - America the Story of Us

3.  Machines producing goods was practiced
in Europe in the 1700s
 This method transplanted to the new
America
 Steamboats, canals, and railroads helped
build and power the factories
 Consumer culture was transformed after
the Civil War

4.  Opportunity fueled innovation
 Industrial process controlled by one or
two corporations by the 20th century
◦ New class of rich industrialists
◦ Armour, Westington, Pillsbury, Rockefeller,
Carnegie

5.  Effect on Industrialization
◦ Connected industry on a national scale
◦ Raw materials could be transported from the
middle of nowhere with ease
◦ Goods cold be transported to far off cities
faster and to rural populations
◦ Materials could reach the widening America
with ease

6.  Citysizes were distinguished by three
factors:
◦ Availability of food
◦ Availability of fuel
◦ Availability of jobs
 Railroads removed those limitations
 In 1860, 9 cities were more than 100,000;
by 1890, 38 cities.

7.  Familylife
 Department stores
 Advertising
 Women’s life

8.  Urbanization and industrialization altered
every facet of American society
◦ Factories linked work with wage
◦ Family size decreased
 Factories attracted immigrants, unskilled
workers, and the poor
 Workers tried to unionize
 Middle class professionals and semi skilled
workers saw themselves rising.
◦ They were able to buy things like cars, electric
lights, and telephones.

9.  Did not exist before the 1850s.
 John Wananmaker, Adam Gimbel, Marshal
Field, Rowland Macy.
 Innovation: Merchandise categorized by
departments.
 Vast varieties = physical expansion.
 Inventions like the electric light allowed
businesses to stay open at night.

10.  Advertisements
were formed to convince the
consumers that they needed the products
◦ Advertising considered an new phenomenon in the late
19th century.
◦ Old ways of advertising: radio, billboards, and print
◦ Sears Roebuck & Co. created the 1st catalogue (1000
pages).
◦ People in rural places were able to order by mail
◦ People abandoned old traditions and embraced new
ones like mass production and new technology.
◦ Magic of Macy's
◦ Pillsbury Cookies

11.  Post Civil War: Women belonged in the
house and men were in the public world.
 Department stores drew women into the
public world.
◦ Women were the top consumers and traveled
to the stores alone or with other women
◦ Eroded the class distinction between women
◦ Helped to supply the store with work; women
worked for less than men
◦ Stores ended up hiring women as store clerk
because women understand what women want.