America From 1800 To The 1920's

America had a huge industrial revolution in the late 1800”s. Many changes happened to our great nation, which factored into this. The evidence clearly shows that advancements in new technology, a large wave of immigrants into our country and new views of our government, helped to promote America’s huge industrial growth from the period of 1860-1900.

During the 1800's America was figuring out how to run a nation through trial and error. During this period of time America faced hardships with foreign powers and with in its self, but the sweet victories made them all worth it. In the 1800's America learned to stand on its own, and became the strong nation it is today.

    During the mid 1860’s America started to change. Railroads were growing faster than ever, factories were popping up everywhere, and the country took its “next step” in its development and industrialization began to occur. Of course like any other thing, it caused a ripple effect on those involved. The development of industries had both great and not so great consequences on those who were impacted. A few of the groups it both helped and damaged were cities, immigrants, and factory workers. The effects industrialization had on cities, immigrants, and factory workers were growth, job opportunities, and the ability to keep wages cheap.

Throughout culture, we see a sudden desire to reform our society into a better generation. In the late 1900’s there is an urge to revise the status quo back to the “gilded age”. With the previous ending of this golden era, citizens were going through change. These changes included many crises that the citizens were not fond of. There were documents being released with included articles in favor of white people, photos of immigrant’s families, and details over groups forming to better society. Looking through these documents, one can imagine the flaws this generation was going through and the sudden push going back to the old era.

Industrial growth in the United States began in the early 1800’s; however, after the Civil War this growth changed in catastrophic proportions. Most of the labor performed pre-Civil War was that of hand labor; machines were now being used as a means of manufacturing, thus increasing the output of production exponentially. Entrepreneurs began flooding the market with goods and services that they thought the general public wanted or needed. In turn bankers and investors began to invest in these new ventures, this provided the entrepreneurs the capital needed to start the business and hire new workers

Can there be two different economies in one single country? Looking at America during the 1800’s, one can prove that can be a diverse economy – depending on one’s region. There is a vast difference between the modern, industrial economy of the North, and the rural, antebellum setting in the South. The North embraced modernization in its economy, while the South tried to delay it eternally.

The Industrial revolution was a time that shaped and created a breakthrough in the American economy. However this success of the business titans at the time like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, Dukes, Vanderbilt and others hurt America more than it helped it. Just like a machine cannot foundation without all of the pieces, so to the American economy cannot last without its averages workers. These business titan who that owned the majority of the country’s income, and forced their workers to work in harsh conditions, and long hours for extremely low wages created an unbalanced system that will continue to grow the gap between the rich and the poor will cause the American economic system to crash and will eventually lead to the downfall of the American Empire they all worked so hard to create.

Pidgeon and Berman reveal their differing interpretations of 1920s America. As mentioned, Pidgeon elaborates on his criticism of 1920s America by explaining the positive impact of wealth on the society, and stating that “striving for wealth has become a way for Americans to ease their consciousness”. (Pidgeon, 2007). Berman’s view of 1920s America talks about the “new and improved” (Berman, 1994) society after the flourish of money flowing through, as the increased wealth had changed America into a more developed environment by influencing the society to live in more rich and polished houses. It appears that Pidgeon’s viewpoint is impacted by the norm of society use money for their pleasure, unlike that of Berman’s which is influenced by the fact that money has given the society a new lifestyle. However, both critics seem to disagree with my own research of 1920s America – despite Pidgeon’s belief that wealth had the ability to solve any uneasy emotions and life problems, I personally feel that his interpretation lacks sufficient analysis regarding the historical context after the first world war. I discovered that during that time, money provided by the government had negatively affected the American society by causing discomfort to those who were not used to such sudden generosity. This also questions the “new and improved” society stated by Berman.

Industrialization was a time period where the United States experienced prosperity and many advancements in technology. Nevertheless, while many beneficial events came from this time period, there were also numerous negative outcomes. This can be seen three decades after The Civil War, where the idea that anyone could rise upwards in society with the use of hard work, thriftiness, and a bit of luck, became widespread among American citizens. However, this idea was only proven correct in individual cases, as the majority of the working class remained in the same financial position despite their strong work ethic.

There were an array of reason for why it was near impossible to escape the fate of a life in the lower class. Crane argues that the environment one is raised in dictates the type of life he or she would have; and that life was not one which provided the proper tools or opportunities to escape. Stephan Thernstrom, history professor at Harvard University, outlines theses specific disadvantages which contributed to the lack of social mobility in 19th century America.

Between 1860 and 1914 a stage of US assertion came as an industrial nation. The domestic market has expanded considerably due to population growth (development and expansion from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast), the development of the railway network and use of the telegraph and the high salaries paid to employees. At this stage the leadership passed into the hands of producers of capital goods. The massive nature of the market was a prerequisite for the development of production and distribution on a large scale salient features of American

After the civil war, the United States took steps to become a more industrialized country. They wanted to become more progressive and “many people viewed this economic growth as evidence of the superiority of the American system”. The effects industrialization can be seen throughout history between 1865 and 1914. Industrialization improved the American way of life but also created many problems for them.

Many of the factors that drove America’s industrial expansion were less than unpraiseworthy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Workers of all kinds were treated poorly, without much dignity and honor held to their jobs. One way that industry thrived was through the cheap labor source. The diligent workers of the time were paid very little, in particular the immigrants. There were also next to no labor restrictions and regulations to keep the workers safe. However, not all of the aspects of the expansion were negative. A few of the positive steps forward were the invention of efficient machinery, and the new research and development that was taking place.

Industrialization was a time period where the United States experienced prosperity and many advancements in technology. Nevertheless, while many beneficial events came from this time period, there were also numerous negative outcomes. This can be seen three decades after The Civil War, where the idea that anyone could rise upwards in society with the use of hard work, thriftiness, and a bit of luck, became widespread among American citizens. However, this idea was only proven correct in individual cases, as the majority of the working class remained in the same financial position despite their strong work ethic.

Imagine living in the era where we had to make our own goods by hand and grow our own source of food with or without a job in the United States. Between the 1600’s throughout 1900 the United States went through the industrial era, which is when business and labor was booming causing for America to grow rapidly. During the Civil War the Union armies needed supplies such as boots, uniforms, weapons, and transportation while in the South their economy diminished. Therefore, with the Union’s high demand for products, manufacturing companies were increasing, but it wasn’t until after the Civil War when the United States industrialization skyrocketed. Due to the industrial era it allowed people to leave villages and farms to work in factories, mills, mines and railroads then eventually allowing women to leave their homes and work in offices as clerks, typists, secretaries, teachers, nurses, seamstresses and some very few in railroads as well. More so, this opened new opportunities for immigrants to travel to the United States to look for work. At first, majority of the immigrants were Irish or German’s until more immigrants began to come from other countries in Europe and Asia. A significant factor that helped revolutionize the industrial era was America’s drive for being innovated, creating inventions and making discoveries, without any of this many jobs wouldn’t have existed. In the 1790’s the U.S Patent Office only had 276 inventions registered then an increase occurred in the