In chapter “The Other Civil War” of A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn described the underlying class tensions caused by industrialization during the nineteenth century. He claimed that these tensions would have led to radical labor reforms if the working class’s anger had not been directed towards other issues. Zinn used The Age of Enterprise by Thomas C. Cochran and William Miller to show the upper class’s indifference towards the problems of the lower class and to prove that the rich manipulated the poor to promote their own interests. He also used Class and Community by Alan Dawley to offer examples of working class resistance, government oppression, and the effects of the Civil War. While Zinn’s use of Class and Community accurately represents Dawley’s arguments, he misuses some of his evidence from The Age of Enterprise. In the chapter “The Other Civil War,” Zinn contended that while the working class attempted to reform the labor system, the government suppressed tensions and turned class anger toward other outlets. Zinn described the poor working and living conditions of industrial laborers to prove the need for labor reform. Overcrowding in cities, long work days, widespread disease, and other factors led workers to seek improvements. He presented numerous examples of strikes, rebellions, and riots to prove that class anger sometimes surfaced despite efforts to repress resistance. While he maintained that these reform attempts failed due to government intervention, many of these actions did result in some gains for the working class. The Anti-Rent Movement in the Hudson Valley began when tenant farmers refused to pay rent and fought a guerilla war with local police. They wanted to end patroonship, a feu... ... middle of paper ... ...and William Miller, The Age of Enterprise: A Social History of Industrial America, (New York: Harper & Row, 1961), 87. Cochran and Miller, Age of Enterprise, 71-72. Zinn, People’s History, 220. Cochran and Miller, Age of Enterprise, 20, 63-63 Ibid., 5, 29. Ibid., 28. Zinn, People’s History, 218. Ibid., 219. Cochran and Miller, Age of Enterprise, 39. Zinn, People’s History, 233-237. Cochran and Miller, People’s History, 117-118. Alan Dawley, Class and Community: The Industrial Revolution in Lynn (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2000), Kindle edition, chap. 1. Dawley, Class and Community, concl. Ibid., chap. 2. Zinn, People’s History, 232. Dawley, Class and Community, chap. 2. Ibid., concl. Zinn, People’s History, 232. Dawley, Class and Community, chap. 3. Zinn, People’s History, 233. Ibid., concl.
In response to intervention, thousands of groups of people became defiant. Laborers living off the bare minimum often assembled into organized groups to enforce their demands upon the government, making a notable push for reform (D) while educated men such as Henry Demarest Lloyd promoted virtue, not land, as the ideal focus of government (B). Dissatisfaction continued within the middle class. As new industrial machines emerged, designed for mass product...
The political crucifiction of the early blue-collar industrial worker was directly caused by organized labor. Before such ‘organization, existed, workers flew under the political radar in the best of ways. They were allowed to live peaceful lives and given the unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In fact, the commodore Andrew Carnegie had achieved the American dream in his rags to riches advancement and he offered the same opportunity for each of his workers. However, the arrival of the ‘organized’ labor movement drowned the worker’s chance at mobility. A cursory run through central terms of the question begs us to answer what is considered “organized” and “labor”. Organized can be...
... and movements, pertaining to the rise of the working class, led to an excessive analysis of the evidence within the pages of Chants Democratic. At times Wilentz’s scrutiny of the trade unions and many other pretentious accounts of the Jacksonian era led the author’s prose to become silted to the reader. In lieu to the disarray of evidence, provided by Wilentz to give application to his arguments on the rise of the labor class; the primary thesis became lost. This leads Chants Democratic to be a great hindrance for the basic student, yet is an excellent source for someone engaged in researching the rise of a working class in American history.
The Industrial Revolution that took place after the Civil War made for a more economically sound country. American workers, however, were becoming more and more dependent upon their wages; a fear of unemployment also stemmed from this. Workers didn’t share in the benefits that their employers reaped. In a chart representing the hours and wages of industrial workers, from 1875 to 1891, it shows that even though their wages were subtly increasing, their 10-hour work day remained the same (Doc. A). Factories were headed by large corporations; this, in turn, meant that new machines lessened the amount of workers in certain fields. As a result of these unsuitable conditions, labor unions were formed. The challenges that these unions faced weren’t easy. If the workers involved in organized labor got too far out of line, these corporations could get federal authorities involved. Moreover, these companies could enforce “ironclad oaths” upon their employees. In a Western Union Telegraph Company employee contract, in 1883, it states that the employee will not be affiliated with any societies or organizations (Doc. E). Despite such setbacks, by 1872 there were over 32 national unions.
Howard Zinn is a compelling writer in the context of American history. While sometimes his opinions may be overbearing in certain topics, his overall analysis of America's struggles during the 1920’s and 1930’s captured and focussed my attention to understand the situation more as a whole. I especially learned of the ever growing determination of a union striker during the time. Zinn pinpoints key information and details it and as always he seems to enlighten the
Rebecca Harding Davis wrote “Life in the Iron Mills” in the mid-nineteenth century in part to raise awareness about working conditions in industrial mills. With the goal of presenting the reality of the mills’ environment and the lives of the mill workers, Davis employs vivid and concrete descriptions of the mills, the workers’ homes, and the workers themselves. Yet her story’s realism is not objective; Davis has a reformer’s agenda, and her word-pictures are colored accordingly. One theme that receives a particularly negative shading in the story is big business and the money associated with it. Davis uses this negative portrayal of money to emphasize the damage that the single-minded pursuit of wealth works upon the humanity of those who desire it.
The time period from 1860 to 1914 is defined by the surfacing of the "mass societies." The social order practically ignored the industrial proletariat and the foundation for a reform was laid. The industrial proletariat refers to all the workers who desperately depended on their wages. These people had absolutely no role in politics or in society in general. Even as late as 1860, the workers had to depend on themselves only to improve their social conditions. During the Industrial Revolution, as the number of machines mu...
The Civil War determined what kind of nation the United States would become. It determined whether it would be a nation with equal rights for everyone or the biggest country that still abused of slaves. The war started because of the brutal conditions slaves were living in. Many had no education what so ever and were treated worse than animals. Back then part of this country found this acceptable and demanded to keep their slaves while the others demanded freedom. Today there are many movies about the civil war. For example the movie Glory which was made in December 15, 1989 it was directed by Edward Zwick. The movie depicts the lives of African American soldiers who had to endure tougher training than the American man, and American officials who had to make these men into real action fighting soldiers. The defining characters in this movie were. Major Cabot Forbes who was very tender towards the African American soldiers and he even stood up for them. Private Trip gave up his freedom in order to fight is true fighter. Corporal Thomas Searles who struggled a lot in the training camp but in the end pulled through. Glory is mainly about men with struggles that have to overcome their torments in order to end the Civil War. It took time and strength but the colored regiment became just as good as any white one. Corporal Thomas Searles, Major Cabot Forbes, and Private Trip all fought for what they believed in even at the time of their last breathes something they would have never done at the beginning of the movie.
The failure of American workers to become class conscious in the Marxist sense does not, however, indicate a willingness to accept the status quo. Rather American workers were acutely aware of their inferior economic and social status. The method they chose to improve their status was trade unionism, not politics. Trade unionism sprang from what Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor termed class awareness, a camaraderie among workers devoid of political consideration. This class awareness of American laborers, historians contend, is evident in the long, arduous and ultimately successful struggle to build a trade union movement.
Beginning in the late 1700’s and growing rapidly even today, labor unions form the backbone for the American workforce and continue to fight for the common interests of workers around the country. As we look at the history of these unions, we see powerful individuals such as Terrence Powderly, Samuel Gompers, and Eugene Debs rise up as leaders in a newfound movement that protected the rights of the common worker and ensured better wages, more reasonable hours, and safer working conditions for those people (History). The rise of these labor unions also warranted new legislation that would protect against child labor in factories and give health benefits to workers who were either retired or injured, but everyone was not on board with the idea of foundations working to protect the interests of the common worker. Conflict with their industries lead to many strikes across the country in the coal, steel, and railroad industries, and several of these would ultimately end up leading to bloodshed. However, the existence of labor unions in the United States and their influence on their respective industries still resonates today, and many of our modern ideals that we have today carry over from what these labor unions fought for during through the Industrial Revolution.
Following the American Civil War, the whole nation was forever changed and was the result of many good and bad things. Although it was a very costly war and was So, the Civil War did define us and made us the good and the bad things we are and led to an extremely significant change because slavery was abolished once and for all and African American rights followed many years later, the Federal Government imposed more power over the states, our country was divided for a while, and it left the nation in debt due to the fact that we fought each other.
The social and economic developments of the last quarter of the nineteenth century drastically changed the United States. The business world changed once industrialization was introduced to the world. Opportunities grew as people heard about the boundless American opportunities. Immigrants from all races flooded the cities which doubled in population from 1860-1900 (Barnes and Bowles, 2014, p. 34). However, as industries grew, owners prospered off the hard work of others. People started to feel they were not being treated fairly. People had to work harder and longer for their money. Barnes and Bowles (2014) noted “In the era of industrialization, millions of workers fought to simply have the right to work in safe conditions, and earn a fair wage” (p. 45). Many Americans feared that giant corporations would one day seek to restrict the ability of common people to get ahead and curtail individual freedoms. These fears were particularly strong among farmers, laborers, an...
Montgomery, David. The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
The project outlines the powerful impact of the Pullman Car Company worker’s rebellion on the modern labor force across the nation and worldwide. George M. Pullman’s employees were subject to a strict, controlled society centered around the Pullman train car industry. They not only worked in his facilities, but were also encouraged, more accurately they were forced, to live in a special town created by their employer. In this town, Pullman maintained control over their living conditions. He provided amenities and, most importantly, commanded the cost of rent. Pullman had successfully created a civilization in which he maintained total authority over his worker’s lives, economically and socially. Unfortunately, leaving the rights of the workers
The Making of the English Working Class is according to Kaye and McClelland, ‘the obligatory starting point for any contemporary discussion of the history of the working-class formation.’ This gives us the indication that Thompson had not just written another piece on the concepts of class but that his book ‘opened interpretive eyes to a new way of seeing class.’