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Social effects of industrial revolution class
A people's history of the united states ch 1 short summary
Effects on workers' lives in the industrial revolution
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Howard Zinn’s unique perspective on American history and the beloved American heroes makes for an interesting story. His book, A People's History of the United States, paints history in a whole new light. While most teachers tell the story of the powerful and renowned elites, the side that Zinn shows in the 13th chapter of his book, “The Socialist Challenge,” goes into detail about the dissent among the population in regard to capitalism. The dissent came since the majority of the population, including most workers, wanted a socialistic society. He also uses other like-minded historians like Emma Goldman, Jack London, and E.S. Swan and historical events such as the fire and strike at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company and founding of the IWW Union …show more content…
to support his claims. These claims are that the lower class began vocalizing their opinions and angrily rebelling against the constraints of a capitalistic society imposed on them by the elites.
He starts the chapter off with a quote from political activist, feminist, and anarchist, Emma Goldman, who stated, “when we sobered up from our patriotic spree—it suddenly dawned on us that…the lives, blood, and money of the American people were used to protect the interests of the American capitalist.” This supports Zinn’s idea of the emerging “class anger” after the realization of the injustices they faced from a capitalistic society. Author of People of the Abyss, Jack London echoed this sentiment of the poor being used as a pawn in capitalism, when he said, “the modern man lives more wretchedly than the cave-man [although he has many more opportunities]…no other conclusion is possible than that the capitalist class has mismanaged…criminally and selfishly mismanaged.” London declared that rather than capitalism, the poor should control things themselves, using socialism. Goldman, London, and even Mark Twain and Upton Sinclair all used their work and popularity to influence others to feel the same condemnation towards capitalism. Other contributors to the class anger, …show more content…
were more “muckrakers” who “simply [told] what they saw” in their newspapers or book, exposing corruption in many cities.
Capitalists were not happy with the attacks and decided to combat them. One method that they used was Taylorism, created by steel company foreman Frederick Taylor, that aimed to get management to control every detail of the workers’ time in factories. As Harry Braverman, author of Labor and Monopoly Capital, stated, “the purpose of Taylorism was to make workers interchangeable.” This concept was rejected by the workers in factories and sweatshops, ultimately leading to many strikes such as the one at Federman’s Bakery and the one at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, where a fire broke out and 146 perished. These strikes though accomplishing small victories, did not improve the working conditions as much as the workers hoped. Zinn declares that instead of benefits from the strikes, “there were more fires. And accidents. And sickness…In one year, 50,000 accidents took place in New York factories alone.” This proves that the workers were aware of the capitalistic strategies and attempting reform, but despite their rising anger, were unable to gain power from big business, as their terrible working conditions persisted. These conditions led to the formation of numerous unions and more worker participation
in them. In fact, Zinn states that even race was overlooked in regard to worker injustice, as E.S. Swan, head of the Negro Longshoreman in New Orleans proclaimed, “the whites and Negroes were never before so strongly cemented in a common bond…and I never saw such solidarity…both races are standing together for their common interests.” As a result of the recognition of capitalism’s downfalls, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) grew in size and strength, Bill Haywood, a leader of the Western Fed. of Miners, declares that the IWW stood on the premise of creating a “working-class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working-class from the slave bondage of capitalism.” Thus, the previously suppressed anger of the workers was beginning to take direction as they joined in unions, and that proves Zinn’s thesis that the anger reemerged after the turn of the century surrounding the differences in class treatment. Overall, Zinn is very effective in his presentation of ideas because he supports his opinions with facts of events during the time and historians that support his argument. Historians, authors, and important historical figures such as Emma Goldman, Jack London, Upton Sinclair, E.S. Swan, and Big Bill Hayward are used especially, because they provide a series of quotes and arguments parallel Zinn’s opinions. He also carefully chooses events like the strike and fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company and the founding of the IWW Union, and relevant quotes from the time of before and after the turn of the century to depict his point of view more clearly. Therefore, his thesis of with the beginning of the 19th century, the lower classes began realizing the injustices they faced living in a capitalistic society, is justly proven.
On July 13, 1900 Joseph Aschs’ new building plans in New York City are approved and by January 5, 1901 the building is complete. In 1906, the eighth floor of the Asch building is bought by the Triangle Shirtwaist Company who opens a factory there. Three years later, a letter is sent to the management of the Triangle Shirtwaist building from a fire prevention expert. He suggests they that a discussion about evaluating and enhancing safety measures. Unfortunately, management does not take the letter seriously and “the letter is ignored.” (Linder, “Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Trial”) The inhumane work conditions in the factory led to the decision of twenty-five ILGWU workers to declare strike against th...
Coming from an “unconventional” background, George Saunders is readily able to relate to the circumstances the everyday working laborer goes through (Wylie). However, Saunders has an advantage to spread out his ideas and concerns about life in the U.S. via his short stories and novellas. Because of neoliberalism and capitalism and its correlation to the huge wealth gap in the U.S. Saunders focuses his protagonists’ view from a proletariat standpoint, allowing the reader to see the life of consumerism has impacted our society. Saunders does not use conventional methods to portray this reality. Instead, Saunders emphasizes on the “absence” of certain moral human characteristics in order to take the reader away from viewing into a hero’s looking glass— to set a foundation of a world where our morals become lost to our materialistic and inherent need of money (Wylie).
James B. Weaver illustrates the true damage of monopolies on the public in “A Call to Action” (Document 4). Weaver, a two-time candidate for president of the United States, addresses the meticulous tactics which trusts and monopolies use to increase their profit at the expense of the public and asserts that their main weapons are, ”threats, intimidation, bribery, fraud, wreck, and pillage.” Arguments such as Weaver’s, suggest and end to the end of the laissez-faire capitalism that monopolies are sustained upon. Laissez-faire capitalism is essentially a system where the government takes no position in the affairs of businesses and does not interfere, no matter what harm is being done. This ideology dominated the business world of the century and allowed for vast unemployment, low wages, and impoverishment. Soon, laborers also begin to express their dismay with the way that such businesses are run and the treatment of workers in the railroad industry. An instance of this being the Pullman Strike of 1894. In 1894, laborers went on a nationwide strike against the Pullman Company; they issued a statement regarding their strike in June (Document 6). Workers are repulsed by Pullman’s exertion of power over several institutions and how his greed affects his competitors, who must reduce their wages to keep up with his businesses. This incident inspires many to take
by saying what it has become today in the way of its development. It is not
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Print.
It is the worker’s condition that he truly focuses on. Many of the problems that people faced during this time include: tenement housing, poor working conditions, child labor, monopolies of business, social and political inequality, and most importantly people putting profits over lives. It is around the same time that a terrible fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The unsafe working conditions made the employees escape nearly impossible.
Chants Democratic, by Sean Wilentz examined the emergence of New York’s labor class during the Jacksonian era and in essence revealed Artisan Republicanism. Wilentz offered a unique perspective in his historical analysis of the social and political labor histories during 1788 through 1850. Wilentz stressed the importance of the republicanism ideology in the creation of a working class that was instrumental in a pre-industrial New York. The author stressed the significance in both the political histories and social histories of the early nineteenth century by incorporating political ideologies and labor union descriptions. He further integrated these insights by means of articulating the social working conditions and lives of small masters, journeymen, and artisans to show their respective importance to the creation of the working class scruples. Chants Democratic iterated not only on the formation of the labor class in America, but also illuminated the changes within this new social class by exploring how antebellum New York’s population began to live and think.
This book definitely gave an insight into American history which was I did not possess before reading it. I always had the idea in my head that the Socialist movement of the early 20th century was not very radical. This book radically changed my views on this point. After reading it I now see exactly how revolutionary the ideas were that Debs was promoting at this time. This book also conveyed to me the extreme importance of the unions and Labor movement in politics during this time period. Unions definitely played a primary role and I learned how politicians must court the labor unions very carefully in order to gain their massive amount of very crucial votes. Salvatore did an excellent job at conveying exactly how important unions were at this time in American history. Given Debs important role in unions at the time in this book his role in American History is emphasized and clearly conveyed. Until reading this I had not realized exactly how important Debs was as a figure in American history both as a Socialist leader and Labor leader.
Zinn, H. (1980). A people's history of the united states. (2003 ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins.
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.
The early 1900s was a time of many movements, from the cities to the rural farms; people were uniting for various causes. One of the most widespread was the labor movement, which affected people far and wide. Conditions in the nation’s workplaces were notoriously poor, but New York City fostered the worst. Factories had started out in the city’s tenements, which were extremely cramped, poorly ventilated, and thoroughly unsanitary. With the advent of skyscrapers, factories were moved out of the tenements and into slightly larger buildings, which still had terrible conditions. Workers were forced to work long hours (around 12 hours long) six hours a day, often for extremely low pay. The pay was also extremely lower for women, who made up a large portion of the shirtwaist industry. If a worker were to openly contest an employer’s rule, they would be promptly fired and replaced immediately. Also, strength in numbers did not always work. Managers often hired brutal strikebreakers to shut movements down. The local police and justice were often of no help to the workers, even when women were being beaten. At the time, the workers needs were not taken seriously and profit was placed ahead of human life. This was not just a struggle for workers’ rights; it was also a movement for the working class’ freedom.
Stefoff, Rebecca, and Howard Zinn. A Young People's History of the United States. New York: Seven Stories, 2007. Print.
The novel focuses on the negative aspects of capitalism and sheds a positive light on communism. Steinbeck proves that there are many problems in capitalism with the way the migrants suffered during the era of the Great Depression. The economic slump, which many people assume affected the urban populations, was even harsher on the migrants. Steinbeck, throughout his novel, reveals the plight of the migrant workers during the Depression and how capitalism has crushed them. He reaches out to his readers and plants the idea that the glorified capitalism in America is not what it seems, and that any path, even communism, is preferable.
All you need to do to bring about this stupendous revolution is to straighten up and fold your arms” (Zinn, 284). The almost flippant language “straighten up and fold your arms” makes this “revolution” seem a lot easier to achieve than it actually is. This change would have required sweeping reforms to the labor system in the United States that would have been nearly impossible for the public to perform without the same scale of changes to the legislation. Keller suggests that all the working class needs to do is to strike to create the change they want. I do think that the people could have brought about changes to the system. It would have required a staggering amount of work to reach enough of the work force to actually create enough momentum for there to be change. Convincing that large a part of the population that stopping the war in the face of the consequences they would face would be the first insurmountable task. Then there is the fact that working class people needed the resources from working in factories to survive. Walking away from one’s job for however long it takes for change to occur is an option only available to people with savings. The ability to walk out of work for a time and still survive is a privilege, and even if everyone with the means to do so went on strike, I feel that those who are in need could fill their
...and Fordism that lead to the increasing productivity and decrease in skilled workers between the years 1919 and 1929. Taylorism and Fordism both help capitalists take control over the worker and a means of increasing production. Taylorism and Fordism lead to the rise of capitalism and the growth of the industrial unionism.