American Industrialization during the 19th century Essay

American Industrialization during the 19th century - Essay Example For female Eastern European workers the transition from the age of handicrafts to the era of machines presents a picture of greed. Most of the former sharecroppers hoped for better life in the city, but in reality wages always work toward minimum level. To assert some control over the changes they jointed into labour unions. The populism movement of Arkansas protestant farmers had a great influence on cooperatives on a national scale. In general, industrialization helped them to improve production, but on the other hand they were faced with new problems caused by industrialization. Researchers suppose that social and economic conditions of American society created an ideal platform for industrialization. The protestant ethic and a belief in free business and an influence on technological innovation and economic growth. Labor-saving devices and new technologies freed workers to enter the factories, which also drew upon immigrant labor. Aided by the spread of the transportation network, the boom period in American industrialization came in the second half of the 19th century. "In the 1890s, groups of Americans seemed to be estranged from each other as they rarely had been before. A few were enjoying the fruits of astonishing wealth, building for themselves magnificent, multimillion-dollar "summer cottages" reminiscent of glittering European palaces" (Created equal, Ch.18, 2005). The most important event was that the working American class was shaped. This process was closely connected with introduction of machinery into manufacturing caused changes in the organization of work. The economies of organized wholesale production were soon made apparent, and the tendency to increase the size of the factory and to merge the various spheres of industry under control of big corporations has continued to the present. The complexity of business operations also increased with the development of transportation and trade facilit ies. Taking into account industrial innovations it is evident that the new industry needed more labour forces to progress, and immigrants, former slaves and women became the source of labour. All industrial changes had a great influence on the American social class structure affecting the lives of people. Primarily, these changes were closely connected with the break-up of the system. "European and American efforts to colonize and explore the far reaches of the globe brought whites face to face with darker-skinned peoples, whom scholars in the new discipline of anthropology studied and classified. The "New Immigration" from eastern Europe raised concerns about conferring citizenship on non-Anglos, such as Russian Jews, Poles, and Italians" (Created equal, Ch.18, 2005). Nevertheless, not all the benefits of industrialization were advantageous for social classes. After industrial Revolution such processes as "the emancipation" of women, the rise of women' self-consciousness became apparent. That understanding of rights always draws together women of similar ambitions and tasks now began to work significant changes in the economic order. Nevertheless, "many minority women, s uch as Hispana activist Adeiina Otero Wairen, supported the suffrage movement even though white leaders kept their distance and refused to embrace the antiracist campaigns of their nonwhite sisters" (Created Equal, Ch. 19, 2005). Eastern European factory women