Chapter 29
The Making of
Industrial Society
1
Overview: The Industrial Revolution
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Energy: coal and steam replace wind, water, and
human and animal labor
Organization: factories over cottage industries
Urbanization: rural agriculture declines, urban
manufacturing increases
Transportation: trains and automobiles replace
animals and watercraft/canals
2
Overview: Creation of New Classes
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Emerging Middle Class: “white-collar” clerks and
managers in new industrial enterprises
Urban proletariat: laborers increasingly unskilled
by mechanization of production
Shift in political power: from aristocratic
landholders to new industrial capitalists
Industrialization and the Social Imagination:
sparks ideas for new political systems, especially
socialist/Marxist ones
3
Overview: Unexpected Costs of the
Industrial Revolution
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Genesis of an environmental catastrophe
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Intellectual underpinnings: faith in human domination
over natural resources
Unforeseen Consequences: Toxic waste, pollution, and
occupational hazards created by industrial processes.
Social ills
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Landless proletariat leads to creation of slums
Migrating workforces lead lives of instability
Increase in crime
4
Genesis of the Industrial Revolution
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Great Britain in the 1780s: the birthplace of
industrial production
Followed an agricultural revolution
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Food surplus
Increase in disposable income
Population increase
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Market for manufactured goods increases
Labor supply increases, making it cheaper
5
British Advantages
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Natural resources
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Ease of transportation
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Plentiful coal and iron ore deposits
Small, compact country
Goods easily transported via river and canal systems
Colonies
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Raw goods imported from colonies
Colonies provide market for manufactured goods,
especially machine-made textiles
6
Cotton-Producing Technology
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Flying shuttle (1733) invented by
machinist John Kay
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Sped up weaving output
Stimulated demand for thread
The “mule” (1779) invented by
Samuel Crompton
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Could produce 100 times more
thread than a manual wheel
7
Cotton-Producing Technology
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Power loom (1785) invented by Edmund
Cartwright: replaces skilled artisans
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Supplanted hand weavers in cotton industry by 1820s
8
Steam Power
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Steam Engine
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James Watt (1736-1819): Instrument-maker
who experimented with steam power while working at the
University of Glasgow. Earlier Newcomen engine, invented in
1712, was used to power pumps for removing water from mines.
Watt’s engine, invented in 1765, was far more compact and
efficient.
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Coal-fired engine that pushed a piston, which in turn turned
a wheel; the rotary design had multiple applications
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“Horsepower” term to describe output of Watt’s engines; did
the work of many horses
Especially prominent in textile industry by 1800
9
Iron and Steel
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By 1709, British smelters begin to use coke
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Coke is carbonized coal, baked in an oven to burn away
impurities, leaving only pure coal called “coke”
Iron production skyrockets
Bessemer converter is invented
(1856) by Henry Bessemer
Refined blast furnace makes
production of steel faster and
cheaper; it removes impurities with
a blast of air
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10
Transportation
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Railroads
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George Stephenson (1781-1848) creates the first steampowered locomotive in 1815.
Initially used to haul coal from mines.
Stephenson’s Rocket
(1829) achieves 28
mph in a competition
for the new Liverpool
& Manchester Railway.
11
Transportation
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Steamboats: First commercially
successful steamboat launched
by Robert Fulton in 1807, plying
a route between NYC and Albany
(used a steam engine smuggled out of Great Britain).
Dense transportation networks developed
 13,000 miles of railroads laid between 1830 and 1870
Rapid and inexpensive transportation encouraged
industrialization in areas previously considered too distant
from major markets.
12
The Factory System
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“Putting-out” system used in early modern era: used in
production of clothing, shoemaking, small firearms, etc.
Subcontracted individuals work at home, employers avoid
wage restrictions of guilds
Rising prices cause factories to replace both guilds and
putting-out system
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Machines too large and expensive for home use
Large buildings could house specialized laborers
Urbanization guarantees supply of cheap unskilled labor
13
Working Conditions
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Dramatic shift from rural work rhythms
Six days a week, fourteen hours a day
Immediate supervision, punishments
“Luddite” protest against machines
break out from 1811 to 1816
Luddites smashing a power loom in 1812
 Name from legend about boy named Ludlam who broke a
knitting frame
 Leader called “King Lud”
 Were handloom weavers and artisans who had been replaced by
machines
Masked Luddites destroy machinery, enjoyed popular support
Fourteen Luddites hung in 1813, movement peters out
“Sabotage”: Dutch wooden shoe called a “sabot” wedged into gears.
14
Working Conditions
Notice announcing a reward for turning over Luddites who
smashed textile-weaving machines in Nottingham in 1812
15
Spread of Industrialization
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Western Europe
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Spread to Germany, Belgium, France by mid-1800s
French revolution and Napoleonic wars delay
industrialization on the Continent, but also set stage for
industrialization
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Abolishes internal trade barriers
Dismantles guilds
After 1871, Bismarck pushes for state sponsorship of
rapid industrialization in Germany, and the nation
accomplished this quickly
16
Industrial
Europe ca.
1850
17
Industrialization in North America
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First New England water-powered textile mill established in
1793 in Rhode Island by Samuel Slater
Industry develops on a wider scale in New England in the
1820s with cotton mills
By the 1870s, heavy iron and steel industries emerges in
Pennsylvania and Alabama.
By 1900, the U.S. an economic powerhouse,with
industrialization spilling over into Canada.
Massive railroad construction stimulates industry: steel for
rails and bridges, telegraph lines for communication, etc.
18
Mass Production: U.S. Contributions
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Eli Whitney (U.S., 1765-1825) invents cotton gin (1793), also
technique of using machine tools to make interchangeable
parts for firearms
Mass production becomes a hallmark of industrial societies
Cotton gin
Eli Whitney
in 1822
19
Mass Production: U.S. Contributions
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Henry Ford, 1913, develops assembly line approach
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Complete automobile chassis every 93 minutes
Previously: 728 minutes
Price of a Ford Model T
drops from $850 in 1909
to $440 in 1915
Ford Model T assembly
line in Detroit in 1913
20
Big Business
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No Small Entrepreneurs: Large factories require a
huge amount of start-up capital
Corporations formed to share risk and maximize
profits
Britain and France laid the legal foundations for
modern corporation in 1850-1860s; the British
Limited Liability Act of 1855 was particularly
important
21
Monopolies, Trusts, and Cartels
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Large corporations form associations to drive out competition, keep
prices high
 Cartel: different companies or countries that come together to
control the price of one commodity
 Trust: Member organizations controlled by a board of trustees that
controls prices
 Monopoly: One individual or company that controls on commodity
or service
 Vertical Integration: John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil controls
almost all oil drilling, processing, refining, marketing in U.S.
 Horizontal Integration: German firm IG Farben controls 90 percent
of world chemical production through merging with and buying
other companies that do the same thing
Governments often slow to break up or regulate monopolies
22
Monopolies, Trusts, and Cartels
This 1904 political cartoon depicts Rockefeller’s Standard Oil as an octopus with its tentacles
around Capitol Hill, a New York banker, a state house, and one reaching for the White House.
23
Industrial Demographics
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Technological Innovation
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“American System”: standardized parts for everything
from revolvers to sewing machines
Cheaper Food: Improved agricultural tools and better
transportation lowers prices
Cheap Manufactured Goods
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Textiles: Cheap and washable cotton clothes affordable
for all but the desperately poor.
Housewares: Furniture, porcelain, cabinets, and
decorative objects far cheaper than in the past.
24
Population Growth (millions)
25
The Demographic Transition
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Industrialization results in marked decline of both
fertility and mortality
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Better diets
Improved disease control
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English scientists Edmund Jenner (1749-1823) develops the
smallpox vaccine (1797); cowpox not deadly, but provides
immunity to smallpox
Declining fertility
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Less need to have bigger families in industrial societies: less
workers needed and more children survive
26
Contraception
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Ancient and medieval methods: depositories or
potions to induce miscarriage pose health risks
Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) predicts
overpopulation crisis, advocates “moral restraint”
Condom first efficient means of contraception
without negative side effects
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Made from animal intestines in seventeenth century,
latex in nineteenth century
27
The Urban Environment
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Urbanization proceeds dramatically
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1800: only 20 percent of Britons live in towns with population
over 10,000
1900: 75 percent of Britons live in such places
Intensified industrial pollution: fossil fuels like coal
befoul air and water with particulates, makes
breathing difficult
City centers become overcrowded, unsanitary:
outbreaks of cholera, typhus, tuberculosis, and
dysentery.
28
Transcontinental Migrations
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Nineteenth to early twentieth century, rapid
population growth drives Europeans to Americas
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50 million cross Atlantic
Britons to avoid urban slums, Irish to avoid potato
famines of 1840s, Jews to escape pogroms under the
tsarist regime in Eastern Europe
United States is favored destination, but some go
elsewhere: Argentina, Canada, Australia, etc.
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New Social Classes
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Economic factors result in decline of slavery
Capitalist wealth brings new status to non-aristocratic
families
New urban classes of professionals
Blue-collar factory workers
Urban environment also creates new types of diversions
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Sporting events: European soccer and American baseball
Leisure activities: bars and pubs, gambling, cockfighting and
dogfighting
30
Women at Home and Work
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Agricultural and cottage industry work involved women:
within the domestic sphere
Role of men as prime breadwinners: Middle-class women
supposed to remain in private/domestic sphere.
Poor women become cheap labor: could be paid less than
men.
Double burden: Poorer women expected to maintain
home as well as work since men’s wage can’t support
family
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Women often work in domestic service
Child labor: Women would often take children to work
and have them work due to lack of daycare facilities
31
Child Labor
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Why Child Workers? Easily exploited, abused, and
controlled
Child Labor Laws in Britain
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Cotton Factories Act in 1819: Made 9 years the minimum age to work,
and limit of 12 hour workday for kids.
Regulation Act in 1833: Funds inspectors to enforce laws
Ten Hours Bill of 1847: Limits workday for women and children
Moral concerns gradually remove children from labor pool
Need for educated workforce: Education of children from
5 to 10 years old becomes mandatory in England in 1881.
32
The Socialist Challenge
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Charles Fourier
Socialism first used in context of utopian
socialists Charles Fourier (1772-1837) and
Robert Owen (1771-1858)
Opposed destructive competition of market system
Attempted to create small model communities that would
serve as inspiration for larger social units
Fourier’s “phalanx” was a unit of about 1,600 people
working harmoniously and for mutual benefit in a
structure resembling the “grand hotels” of the era.
Owen was a Welsh reformer who founded utopian
communities in Scotland and the United States.
33
Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich
Engels (1820-1895)
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Two major classes in Marx’s analysis:
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Capitalists, who control means of production
Proletariat, wageworkers who sell labor
Highlighted the exploitative nature of
capitalist system: labor produces more
value than the paid wage for it.
Religion: “opiate of the masses”
Argued that capitalist would be overthrown in favor of a
“dictatorship of the proletariat” in a historical process that
mirrored rise of the bourgeois class over the feudal lords
34
Social Reform and Trade Unions
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Socialism had major impact on nineteenthcentury reformers
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Addressed issues of medical insurance, unemployment
compensation, retirement benefits
Trade unions form for collective bargaining
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Strikes to address workers’ concerns
Trade unions had major political influence in conservative
imperial Germany: merger of two workers’ parties creates
the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany in 1875. Though
outlawed, it gained strength.
35
Global Effects
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Global division of labor
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Rural societies that produce raw materials
Urban societies that produce manufactured goods
Uneven economic development
Export dependency in Latin America, subSaharan Africa, south and southeast Asia
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Low wages and small domestic markets for
manufactured goods
Economies reliant on one or two export commodities
36