Chapter 18 The Rise of Smokestack America The American People, 6 th 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,  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