Industrialization: Benefits and Costs to American Society
Industrialization ushered in an age of unbridled capitalism that had never been seen before in American society. It also launched a new era of communication, travel, investment opportunities, leisure, comfort, and middle-class convenience. Industrialization attracted immigrants from around the world to Americaimmigrants who saw the US as the land of opportunity. But many of them found work in American factories to be unsafe, hostile, and inhumane. Industrialization also turned America into an imperial nation. Prior to industrialization, American society had largely limited itself to its own land; after industrialization, industrialists and their political allies began seeking ways to expand their influence and power abroad. Thus, war followed upon war, beginning with the Spanish-American War, and the story is ongoing still today. This paper will discuss how, overall, the main benefits were economic growth and social mobilityfor a time; yet, the costs were inevitably a loss of craftsmanship, labor exploitation, and social degradation.
One of the biggest benefits of industrialization was the growth in the American economy (Eckert et al., 2023). Factories, the steam engine, and steel mills made it possible to produce and move goods on an unprecedented scale. This led to increased trade and the rise of the United States as a global economic power. It also led to job creation. The...
…to horrible overcrowding and poor living conditions. Immigrant ghettoes were the norm, which is why areas like Chinatown, or Little Italy, popped up in big cities: these were regions populated by people of similar ethnicity, where they often lived poor but among people of the same cultural tradition. Moreover, the industrial economy experienced cycles of boom and bust and economic instability, which led to the Great Depression (Eckert et al., 2023).Ultimately, industrialization in America was a double-edged sword. It brought about huge economic growth, technological innovation, and for some, social mobility; but it also resulted in labor exploitation, loss of craftsmen, economic instability, and social inequality. In fact, these effects are…
References
Eckert, F., Juneau, J., & Peters, M. (2023, May). Sprouting Cities: How Rural AmericaIndustrialized. In AEA Papers and Proceedings (Vol. 113, pp. 87-92). 2014 Broadway, Suite 305, Nashville, TN 37203: American Economic Association.
Rosenbloom, J. L. (2002). Looking for work, searching for workers: American labor marketsduring industrialization. Cambridge University Press.
Industrialization After the Civil War Introduce your paper with your previously crafted thesis statement. After the Civil War, the United States became a much-industrialized society. The country was characterized by several industrial developments. More investments were put on establishing industries that could facilitate the production capacity of the country. Key policies were laid to drive the growth of industries in many of the sectors leading to the growth of industrialization in the
Industrialization in America The process of industrialization can be categorized as the first step towards a social and economic transformation which affected the whole world in ways beyond comprehension. In a nutshell, the world we live in today was nowhere near what it is today before industrialization changed the face of the world. America too greatly adapted to this change and saw itself changing and advancing in the face of the
Industrialization after U.S. Civil War AMERICAN INDUSTRIALIZATION AFTER THE U.S. CIVIL WAR (1865-1920) It is a truism that large-scale warfare tends to increase industrial production and innovation, and that societies benefit from this industrialization after the war is over. In America, the Civil War was followed by the economic prosperity of the Gilded Age -- I would like to argue that the chief effect of this prosperity was to cause new conflicts
Industrialization After the Civil War Industrialization was, in all aspects, a game changer in the U.S. because it brought about a complete transformation in people's ways of life. It changed how businesses were run, transformed how people earned money, made transportation easier, and caused a social and economic revolution. Within four decades (1865-1920), the U.S. had "transformed from a predominantly rural agrarian society to an industrial economy centered in large metropolitan cities"
Industrialization, Immigration, Urbanization, And Transportation in United States Post Civil War The process to modernize the American states after the end of the Civil War was one of the most complex events that shape the way in which the history of the United States would evolve in the 20th century. There were several aspects of the history of the States that determined changes influenced by consequences of these events. In this
Industrialization in Europe increased the development of machines, production of goods and new energy resources of other societies. However, it had many positive and negative effects to the society. The building of new empires enabled Europe to gain access to their armies, exports, finances and strategic locations. The paper will analyze how Industrialization in Europe led to imperialist conquest of other societies and what made the European Armies so effective
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now