Unit 1: Rise of Modern America:
Industrialism and Urbanization
1865-1910
SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
THE RISE OF BIG BUSINESS
LABOR STRIVES TO ORGANIZE
THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN SOCIETY
THE URBAN WORLD
DAILY LIFE IN THE CITIES
The Rise of Modern America
 The beginning of what America is today:
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Positive and negatives
Technology and science
Expansion: Continental US, the World = conflict
Industry, Urbanization, Big Business, Immigration
New ways of owning, buying, selling, working
 New roles in society:
 Class, race, gender, nationality
 New roles of government and politics
 New American culture and society

CREATES POLARIZATION AND CHANGES WHO WE ARE, WHAT
WE DO, HOW WE THINK
Basic Ideas of Capitalism
 Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations (1776)
 All economic activity based on NATURAL LAWS
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Limited resources =/= Unlimited demands
Concept and reality of “supply and demand”
Increase supply and lower demand = prices fall
 Decrease supply and higher demand = prices rise
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 The government, according to capitalists, SHOULD NOT
do anything to interfere with these natural laws:
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The government should NOT get involved
“Laissez-faire” = “Just let it go”
Unregulated
Basic Foundations of Capitalism
 1) Free market system= No government involvement
 2) All based on supply and demand
 3) All based on earning profits
 4) Competition in the market place
 (Social Darwinism=survival of the fittest)
 5) All of society (the consumer) benefits
 6) Cycles of “boom” and “bust”
 7) Big business = big corporations
 A) Producing and selling
 B) Buying and selling
Industries Expand
 Technology = Science and industry
 Communication
 Transportation
CHANGES HOW WE LIVE
 Power
 Leads to MASS PRODUCTION MASS Consumption
 1700s-1800s: Steam Engine (Robert Fulton)
 Late 1800s: Oil (Drake, Lucas, McCoy)
 Early 1900s: Electricity (Edison)/Steel (Bessemer)
Electrical Power and Communication
 Telegraph—Samuel Morse (1840s)
 Transatlantic cable—Cyrus Field (1866)
 Typewriter—Christopher Sholes (1867)
 Telephone—Alexander Graham Bell (1876)
 Lots of Stuff—Thomas Edison
 Others: Cash register, calculating machines, sewing
machines
Electrical Power and Transportation
 Railroads—cheap steel leads to growth
 Transcontinental Railroad 1869
 Compressed air brake—G. Westinghouse
 Standard gauge tracks
 Time Zones
 Cars (1913 30,00 produced; 1915 300,000 produced)
 Airplanes (Wright Brothers, 1903)
 “Spin-Off Effect”
Industrialists and Capitalism
 With the boom in industry, titans of industry
rose to the top of the socio-economic pyramid
 Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller,
Cornelius Vanderbilt, etc.
 Took advantage of a capitalist society
What is Capitalism Again?
 Economic system in
which private
business runs most
industries, and
competition
determines how
much goods cost
and workers are
paid
 Starbucks!
Capitalism Continued…
 During the Second
Industrial
Revolution,
Capitalism created
groups of “Haves”
and “Have-Nots”
Rise of Big Business
 Concept of CORPORATION
 Stockholders buy shares = investment money
 Profits put back into companies = growth
 If a corporation has control over an entire industry =
monopoly (gov. does not interfere)
 A few businesses will suceed, most will fail
 Survival of the Fittest (Social Darwinism)
Two Ways Monopolies Are Formed
 1) Vertical Integration: A corporation controls all of
the production aspects of a particular industry

Carnegie Steel He controlled all the steps needed to make
his final product
 2) Horizontal Integration: A corporation controls a
particular market

Standard OilRockefeller controlled the entire oil industry
 Tactics Used: Pools, Trusts, Mergers, Price Fixing,
Bribes and Rebates
Titans of Industry
 Cornelius Vanderbilt—RR
 Leland Stanford—RR
 Andrew Carnegie—US Steel
 John D. Rockefeller—Standard Oil
Two Interpretations of These Kinds of
Businessmen
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Positives
“Captains of Industry”
Built big businesses
US #1 in manufacturing by 1892
Huge fortunesAmerican DreamHoratio Alger
PhilanthropistsGospel of Wealth
True CapitalistsHuge profitsBest of the what
they did
Two Interpretations of These Kinds of
Businessmen
Negatives
 “Robber Barons”
 Unfair competition
 Ruthlessness
 Selfish, greedy
 Actually went against capitalismdestroyed
competition

1900: 2% of US companies made 50% of all the products made
in the US
Carnegie’s Home, Libraries, Workers
Carnegie’s Home, Libraries, Workers
Carnegie’s Home, Libraries, Workers
Government Gets Involved
 Takes steps to control and regulate these big
businesses
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Anti-Laissez Faire
 1887: Interstate Commerce Act
 1890: Sherman Anti-Trust Act
 1913: 16th Amendment (Income Tax)
Recap
 Who would support capitalism?
 Why?
 Who would oppose capitalism?
 Why?
Labor Strives to Organize
 Worker’s Problems
 Low wages and long hours
 Women and children working too long and hard
 Machines displaced workers
 Workers had to work at the pace of the machines
 Unsafe, unsanitary working conditions
 Capitalism is unfair in many ways
Knights of Labor (1869)
 Uriah Stephens, Terence
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Powderly, Mary Harris Jones
All workers included—skilled and
unskilled
Pushed for 8 hour day, end to
child labor
700,000 members by 1886,
several strikes
Decline after 1886—Haymarket
Square Riot
American Federation of Labor
 Samuel Gompers
 Only skilled workers (harder to
replace in a strike)
 Organized into separate craft or
trade unions
 Not very political—pushed for
basic economic benefits
 Overall concept of collective
bargaining/closed shop v. open
shop
Labor Strives to Organize
 Worker’s Tools:
 Unionize
 Strike
 Collective Bargaining
 Boycott
 Violence
Homestead Strike
 Workers at
Carnegie Steel
went on strike to
protest a wage cut
 Managers
instituted a lockout
 Violence ensued16 deaths
Labor Strives to Organize
 Employer’s Tools:
 Fire employees
 Blacklist
 Hire Scabs
 Lockout
 Violence
 Injunction
Different Economic Systems
 Free Market (Capitalism)
 Government makes ZERO decisions
 Mixed Economic (Socialism)
 Combination of Free Market and Command
 Command (Communism)
 Government makes all the economic decisions
Production
 Pricing
 Distribution
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No concern with Supply and Demand
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Too unfair, too unequal
Different Economic Systems, cont’d…
 Free Market (Capitalism)—Profits are key
 So…Mass production and mass consumption
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1870s early 1900s (bulk purchasing = lower prices)
Department stores (1860s-1870s)
 Marshall Field-Chicago
 R.H. Macy-NYC
 Chain Stores (almost a monopoly)
 Woolworths
 A&P Grocery
 Mail Order Catalogs
 Sears and Roebuck
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Transformation of American Society
 Immigration:
 1880-1915 = Massive change in immigration patterns
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Old Immigrants v. New Immigrants
Old Immigrants
1770s-1890s
Northern and Western
Europe
Mostly Protestant
Sought economic
opportunity and religious
freedom
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New Immigrants
1890s-mid 1900s
Southern and Eastern
Europe
Jews, Catholics, Orthodox
Came for the same reasons
but had MANY challenges
Immigration
 New Immigrants
 Differ physically
 Language barriers
 Cultural differences
 Concentrated in big cities
 Could these new immigrants be
“Americanized?”
 Melting Pot
 Pros and Cons of diversity?
Immigration, cont’d…
 From 1905 to 1907: 10,000 immigrants per day at
Ellis Island
 By 1890: 15% of all Americans were foreign born
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NYC: 80%
Chicago: 75%
Boston: 65%
New Immigrants & Difficulties
 Resentment
 Political, economic, cultural, religious reasons
 Difficulties:
 Long expensive journal
 New unknown life in US = culture shock
 Loved ones left behind or separated upon arrival
 Housing issues = ethnic slums (Little Italy)
 Racism and religious persecution
 Language issues = job issues
 General issues: Stay true or fit in?
New Immigrants& Difficulties, cont’d…
 Xenophobia: Fear of foreigners
 Nativism: Disrespect for cultures not yours
 Immigrants seen as:
 Too different
 Anarchists
 Radicals
 Socialists
 Communists
 Competition for jobsImmigrants paid less
 Many joined unions=seen as anti-American
Attempts to Restrict Immigration
 1873: Economic depression in US

Dennis Kearney set a Workingman’s Party to keep out Chinese
workers
 1882: Congress passes Chinese Exclusion Act
 1894: Immigration Restriction League proposes literacy
tests—Congress passes a law
 1906: Asian children in San Francisco removed from
public schools
 1907: Agreement between US and Japan
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Japan agrees not to let any more Japanese emigrate to America
(1907: 30,0001909: 3,000)
 1913: Alien Land Law in California
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Since immigrants are not eligible for citizenship, they cannot own
land
Daily Life in the Big Cities
 Increased
immigration brought
about a larger lower
class and a smaller
upper class
Culture
 The influx of immigrants brought various
religious, social, and cultural practices and
customs to the United States
 Created a “melting pot”
Social Class Pyramid
Social Class Pyramid Breakdown
 BOTTOM PORTION:
 New Immigrants
 Lived in ghettos/tenements
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Chinatown, Little Italy,
“Jewtown”
Factory workers
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Little pay, bad hours, bad
conditions
Jacob Riis--How the Other Half Lives
Social Class Pyramid Breakdown
 MIDDLE PORTION
 Old Immigrants (Fluently spoke English)
 Store owners, doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc.
 Women
 Secretaries
 Nurses
 Teachers
 MAIN REASON FOR THE EMERGENCE OF THIS
CLASS IS COMULSORY EDUCATION LAWS
Education
 Education:
 1860s: Compulsory Education Laws = educated people are
necessary for democracy
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# of public school kids from 7-15 million
Education could also help immigrants assimilate
Learn about American culture, history, English
 1870: 160 public high schools/500 colleges
 1900: 6,000 public high schools/1000 colleges
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Since more education = more reading = publishing and
advertising
1865: 500 Daily newspapers
 1910: 2600 Newspapers
 William Randolph Hearst/Joseph Pulitzer (Yellow Journalism)
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Social Class Pyramid Breakdown
 TOP PORTION:
 Old Money
 Modeled lives after British Victorian Culture
 Nouveau Riche (Newly Rich)
 Conspicuous Consumption
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Social Gospel
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Spent money just to show off
Applied Christian principles to social problems
Social Darwinism
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Argues that society progresses through competition, with
the fittest rising to positions of wealth
Daily Life in the Big Cities
 More money = more leisure time/entertainment
 Reading
 Parks—Central Park in NYC 1857 (Frederick Law Olmsted)
 Sports—Baseball, football, boxing, basketball
 Theater—Vaudeville variety shows
 Music—Jazz, combines cultural diversity
Scott Joplin
 Jelly Roll Morton
 Louis Armstrong
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Amusement Parks—Roller coaster (1884); Coney Island; Ferris
Wheel (1893 in Chicago)
Skyscrapers—Elisha Otis (1853); Louis Sullivan (1890)