This document summarizes key aspects of the industrialization of America in the late 19th century. It discusses how technological innovations like electricity drove mass production. It also describes how railroads transformed into large corporations through government assistance and cut-throat practices. As industry grew, cities expanded rapidly as immigrants and rural residents were drawn to new job opportunities. Within cities, immigrant neighborhoods clustered near factories while the wealthy lived in new suburbs. Long workdays in dangerous factories employed many immigrants and children in repetitive jobs. As working conditions deteriorated, laborers increasingly organized strikes and protests to improve wages and hours.

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

2. I.
The Texture of
Industrial Progress

3. Technological
Innovations
 Advances in technology allowed
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. II.
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. IV. 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