Chapter 18
The Rise of
Smokestack America
The American People, 6th ed.
I.
The Texture of Industrial
Progress
Technological Innovations
 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
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
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
II.
Urban Expansion in the
Industrial Age
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
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
III. The Industrial City
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
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
IV. Industrial Work and the
Laboring Class
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
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
V. Capital Versus Labor
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
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