Chapter 29 Reading Questions
The Making of Industrial Society
Themes :
The “industrial society” of the title will be one based in the Atlantic world. This chapter starts with the
causes and immediate consequences of the industrial revolution in western Europe and then looks at
the internal/domestic and some of the external/international effects of creating an industrial economy
in western Europe and the United States. The concluding paragraph on page 842 provides a succinct
synopsis of the themes of the chapter. The causes of the industrial revolution in western Europe is a
well-worn topic in European history and the usual list of causes focuses on advantages that Great Britain
had over other European countries. The authors of the text, however, needed a world history context.
They use Kenneth Pomeranz’s argument from his book The Great Divergence to frame their causation
narrative.1 Unlike China, the English had access to coal deposits, overseas colonies, and increased
consumer demand for cotton cloth. Those advantages combined with technological innovations to
produce the industrial revolution in western Europe. The economic advantages of mechanized textile
mills became instantly apparent and by 1850 the heart of western Europe as well as the urban centers of
the U.S. had developed industrialized manufacturing capabilities. All this new technology was funded by
industrial capitalists, many of whose fortunes had been established by plantation investments. Those
plantations were, of course, worked by slave labor. Thus the profits of the plantation economy, which
began in the late 15th century, lay at the economic roots of the 19th -century industrial revolution.
Slavery was not a labor system suitable for an industrialized economy, however, and industrializing
countries ceased using it, eventually. Nineteenthcentury businessmen and governments developed their
own modern economic engine, the corporation. The social effects of the industrial revolution are welldocumented. The upper- and middle-class investors, owners, and managers benefited immediately. The
rural and urban working classes bore the brunt of loss of income and control over their living and
working situations, due to the greed of investors and the neglect of governments committed to “laissezfaire” economic policies. By the end of the 19th century, however, governmental social reforms and
trade unions gradually improved the lives of working people. Japan and Russia tried to emulate the
economic and technological successes of the West in the 1870s. Japan was successful; Russia was not.
These issues are covered in-depth in chapter 32, and may not need to be mentioned here. The last few
pages of the chapter begin the discussion of the formation of a global economy with countries that
manufacture and those that supply raw materials and remain economically dependent on the
industrialized economy. Pages 860-867 should be added here for a fuller discussion of American
economic development.
Study Questions – Answer the following questions. Once you have read the chapter, you should be able
to discuss each question fully.
1. What inventions led to the mechanization of the cotton industry after 1750? Why was the textile
industry so prominent at this time?
2. Explain how Great Britain took such a commanding lead in the Industrial Revolution
3. Summarize the changes in iron and steel production and in transportation in the nineteenth century.
4. When and how did industrialization spread to the European continent and to the United States? What
factors in those countries tended to support industry?
5. What are some of the characteristics of “industrial capitalism”? How did industrial giants like J.D.
Rockefeller achieve such dominance over the marketplace?
6. What was the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the material standard of living in Europe and
America? Who benefited the most from this?
7. What are the significant demographic (population) trends of the nineteenth century in Europe and
America? What factors account for these changes?
8. What was the impact of the industrial revolution on working-class families? Consider the changes for
working-class men, women, and children.
9. In what ways did the major industrial nations of the west become more responsive to the needs and
interests of working people?
10.Compare the process of industrialization in Russia and Japan in the late nineteenth century.
11.What was the impact of western industrialism on the nonindustrial countries of Asia and South
America?