Esther Lee
Mrs. Lordi
Honors English 9
18 April 2016
The Industrial Revolution: Highs and Lows A paradox is a statement that seems self-contradictory, but it can sometimes express the truth in life. Charles Dickens once referred to the French Revolution in his novel A Tale of Two Cities as “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . .” (Dickens 1). The statement is easily applied to many other time periods in history like the American Industrial Revolution. From the early 1800s to the early 1900s, this revolution had many pros and cons that affected the American society. The United States was predominantly an agricultural nation in the 1800s. The early stages of the American Industrial Revolution started in the
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It is evident that the American Industrial Revolution was composed of good times and bad times.
The use of assembly lines for faster production played a major part in the Industrial Revolution since the strategy generated large profits for the factory owners. Assembly lines were used in the Ford Company which was the practice of moving the work from one worker to another until the product was finished (Nardo, United States 63). The strategy was shown to be very efficient and fast. For example, in 1909, Ford was making almost 11,000 Model Ts compared to the 65 cars the company had been building each year before assembly lines were used. In 1910, almost 19,000 Model Ts were built (Evans 18). A year after Ford’s introducing the assembly line, the amount of time to assemble a car reduced from 12 hours and 28 minutes to two hours and 38 minutes. After another year, the production time dropped to an hour and 33 minutes (DiBacco 125). By 1914, a car was coming down the assembly line every 40 seconds (Evans 19). Ford not only made millions of cars by 1920, but he also had spectacular sales. In 1916, Ford made and sold 739,000 Model Ts, which was half of all new cars made in the US (Nardo, United States 63). Assembly lines would later be used in other companies who hoped to bring a similar success rate in mass production and in sales as Ford did. Additionally, inventors in the Industrial Revolution created new technology that reduced the extensive
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.
In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s the United States was in a transformation from the Jeffersonian vision of an agricultural nation, into Alexander Hamilton’s vision of an industrial America. The book Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper gives a good idea of what America was like during the Early Republic period. The industrial life would turn America into a country that is dependent on the work of manufactories.
The Industrial Revolution was a time of great advancement for America as a whole. The bourgeoisie felt the positive effects of this in the form of new entrepreneurship opportunities, growth of existing business and an overall wealth increase. As their means to faster and more efficient transportation grew, so did the productivity of factories and distribution. The bourgeoisie were known for their high standard of living throughout the revolution. They lived and worked comfortably, constantly expanding their power and capital.
The working class during the Industrial Revolution made up 80 percent of society, the other 20 was composed of wealthy business owners. People in the 1800’s migrated from shops in their home to work in dangerous and life threatening factories. While many say this was a positive period, it came with negative consequences. The Industrial Revolution was more negative than positive because working conditions were very unsafe, workers worked extremely long hours, and employees worked for cheap wages.
During the late 1800's, America grew to become one of the nation’s leading industrial nations. The first industrial revolution had changed its pace from working on factories to the advanced transportation in the west
Paradoxes as well as contradictions have been expressed in describing previous time periods. Stated from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...for the good or for the evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only” (Dickens 1). Specifically, Dickens had referred this quote to a French revolution, but the statement can pertain to many other historical events and continues through today. In the American Industrial Revolution, the outcome left multiple views of whether it was considered a pro or a con. However, the American Industrial Revolution has demonstrated both numerous challenges along with countless benefits to the country.
The Industrial Revolution set people away from farms and small villages and moved them to cities and towns because of the job opportunities that arose in the cities. The Industrial Revolution not only helped people move along in the late 1700s and early 1800s but also it has made the people what they are today. During the Industrial Revolution, the movement from an agrarian society to an industrial one reshaped the roles of families, widen the gap between classes, and led to the developments in communication, transportation, and other scientific fields that completely changed humanity.
America has been expanding and growing since its birth out of Great Britain. The Industrial Revolution has been an influence in the American life since it first in the 1700s. “Most families did not have enough to sell at the market- they had just enough for their own needs.” Up until the factories started booming and employment rates skyrocketed, people really couldn’t become wealthy and live a decent life. As the ways of farming grew the English at the time began to use up more and more land efficiently. “Unusable swamplands could be drained and used for crops.” That’s absolutely amazing that in this era they could turn swamps into areas to raise more crops so they can naturally make more money at the markets and become a bit wealthier. Farming is one of the most important lively hoods of mankind; no matter what argument anyone tries to make. If we didn’t have farming and agricultural production we wouldn’t have all the different sorts of food products we do, nor would they be as abundant. Life would be like it was before the Industrial Revolution came about and most of us would still be growing our own food and barely scraping by in life. With all this agricultural expansion of the time population in England start expanding drastically as well. Thanks to population growth people started to worry more about new inventions and producing stuff for us to make our day to day lives easier than we could have ever before. With all the technological advancements leading up to
The Industrial Revolution had many positive and negative impacts on society. The positive include cheaper clothes, more job opportunities, and improvement in transportation. And the negative would include exploitation of women and children, workers work long hours and environmental damages. These are just a few that I believe had an impact on the Industrial Revolution.
Think about your life for one second: you communicate with people, travel, make purchases, and utilize those commodities. But have you ever wondered what made those things possible? After all, you go to the store to buy things you need. You drive a car to work and to visit your friends. If you need to talk to someone, you simply pick up your phone or computer. However, none of this would be possible without a means of communication, factories to manufacture the products you need, places to work, and ways to travel and transport goods. And what made these possible? The answer is the Industrial Revolution, which started in Europe around the year 1730. A revolution is a major change or turning point in something. The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution in Europe changed Europe to this day. This began in the United Kingdom in the 1700s and expanded to Western Europe in the 1800s. During the Industrial Revolution, this provided new technology, a surplus of food, trading and different ways of producing goods for countries. The women and children in Europe had to work hard and work in the mills. They did this to give enough money for their family to live on. Politics also changed during the Industrial Revolution. Thus, the Industrial Revolution affected many people and to discover new technology and ways of thriving life.
Ford Motor Company began a relentless drive to increase production and lower costs. Henry and his team borrowed concepts from watch makers, gun makers, bicycle makers, and meat packers, mixed them with their own ideas and by late 1913 they had developed a moving assembly line for automobiles. The assembly line is a series of workers and machines in a factory by which a succession of identical items is progressively assembled. This idea has been in every automotive factory for many
The Industrial Revolution could possibly be the most important event in the history of our world. Before it, people worked mostly on farms or sold things through the market that were hand crafted. This revolution brought about great change in the ways that we produce goods and the economies of the world. While some might argue that Industrialization had primarily negative consequences for society because of the rough working and living conditions, it was actually a positive thing for society. Industrialization’s positive effects were an increased standard of living, better means of travel, and more developed countries with better economies.
The Industrial Revolution was the quintessence of capitalistic ideals; it bred controversy that led to Karl Marx’s idea of communism as a massive grass roots reaction to the revolution’s social abuses. Firstly, the Industrial Revolution featured the construction of machines, systems and factories that allowed goods to be manufactured at a faster rate with a lower cost. The seed drill made it so there could be “a semi-automated, controlled distribution and plantation of wheat seed”(Jones 2013). Secondly, there was a great social and economic divide between the wealthy owners and the poor workers, which gave rise to the mass’s vulnerability to the advent of extreme socialism. Figures of authority severely oppressed their employees by giving them insufficient pay, a treacherous work environment, and even making some children work more than 12 hours per day (Cranny 150). Finally, far right capitalism created a brutal boom and bust cycle of economics that made, for the multitude at the bottom, a perpetual nightmare of poverty and death. People responded to this social situation by taking part in violent protests; oppression sires rebellion. The Industrial Revolution was the chassis of great imagination and progress of political, economic, and social force that still affects this world today.
In the last part of the eighteenth century, a new revolution was born with it came a new standard of living. It shaped the world into what people of "today" are familiar with. This time period of the late eighteenth century is known as the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution paved the way for the modern society as we know it. It marks a period of widespread urbanization and long strides in technology and industry, which brought about major lifestyle changes among the all the social classes. It began in Great Britain in the early 1800s , which was the only country not in extreme debt after the war in Europe at the time. It has had several consequences, both good and bad. The Industrial Revolution brought: an end to the cottage industry, poor living conditions , and awful working conditions.