Lecture Notes: Life in Industrial America

I. Introduction

• Rudyard Kipling's Chicago Visit (1889):
  • Describes technology-driven, greedy city.
  • Observations of progress defined by industrial advancements like telegraph wires and railways.
• Chicago's Industrialization:
  • Meatpacking industry and corporate growth.
  • Population growth from 30,000 in 1850 to 1.7 million by 1900.
  • Immigrant influx from Germany, British Isles, Scandinavia to Eastern Europe.
• Impact of Industrialization:
  • New modes of production, mass culture, and wealth.
  • Urbanization and immigration shaping a new America.

II. Industrialization & Technological Innovation

• Railroads:
  • Major capital and corporations, national operations, and creation of time zones.
  • Legal innovations like incorporation and government subsidies.
• Economic Impact:
  • Factory work and labor unions.
  • Emergence of a middle class of managers and bureaucrats.
• Technological Advances:
  • Thomas Edison and electrical innovation.
  • Invention factory in Menlo Park.
  • Electricity’s role in the Second Industrial Revolution.

III. Immigration and Urbanization

• Urban Growth:
  • Industry’s pull of labor to cities.
  • Immigrant labor replacing small workshops.
• Diverse Immigration:
  • New immigrant groups: Italians, Poles, Eastern European Jews.
  • Chain migration and ethnic communities.
• Urban Political Adaptation:
  • Political machines like Tammany Hall aiding immigrants.
  • Infrastructure improvements but also crowding and slums.

IV. The New South and the Problem of Race

• Post-Reconstruction South:
  • Henry Grady’s New South vision.
  • Economic prosperity hopes with Northern investment.
• Racial Violence and Lynching:
  • White supremacy post-Reconstruction.
  • Jim Crow laws and disenfranchisement
• Lost Cause and Southern Identity:
  • Romanticized Confederate past.
  • Industrial growth paralleled with racial oppression.

V. Gender, Religion, and Culture

• Religion and Wealth:
  • Rockefeller’s tainted money debate.
  • Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie.
• Higher Education Changes:
  • Elite and practical education growth.
  • Increasing presence of women in academia.
• Challenges to Gender Norms:
  • Female activism and literature challenging domestic roles.
  • Muscular Christianity addressing perceived decline in masculinity.

VI. Conclusion

• Industrial Transformation:
  • Post-Civil War focus on industrial development.
  • Rise of big business, middle class, and urbanization.
  • Persistence of racial and economic inequality.

VII. Primary Sources & Further Reading

• Various primary source documents and recommended readings for further exploration of the industrial era.

VIII. Reference Material

• Edited by David Hochfelder with contributions from various historians.
• List of recommended readings for deeper insight into themes discussed in the chapter.