3. • Gilded Age means that America
looked good from the outside but
within its borders social problems
were abundant
• Social problems included:
overpopulation, rampant
immigration, unsafe factory
jobs, child labor, racism
• the economy functioned under
unrestrained laissez-faire capitalism
• Big business relied on efficiency to
produce more and more consumer
goods
4. 1. How did you feel working as a craftsperson at the beginning
of this activity?
2. How did you feel working on the assembly line?
3. What factors made producing the drawing on the assembly
line difficult or frustrating?
4. How did members of your group cope with the stress or
monotony?
5. What made you want to work hard? What made you not
want to work hard?
6. How did you feel about the teacher as the factory manager?
7. How did your attitude or feelings change as the activity
progressed?
8. Did you prefer working as an individual craftsperson or
5. • four principles that go into the assembly lines are:
interchangeable parts, continuous flow, division of labor, and
reducing wasted effort.
• interchangeable parts meant making the individual pieces of
the car the same every time
• Conveyor belts helped with continuous flow
• Every worker had one specific job to do
• Ford's manufacturing principles were adopted by countless
other industries
• The assembly lines changed the nature of factory life and
American business
