Industrial Age Dbq

The Industrial Age of America was both a time of great prosperity and great distress. Many perished under the heavy weight of poverty while some benefited and prospered through achievements such as the railroads that crossed the states. Although many may have differentiating viewpoints on this period of time, one cannot truly be certain whether or not this era was a time of progress for Americans without first looking at both the positives and negatives that impacted this nation.
The Industrial Age of America was a time for many positive changes in society. The end of the Civil War encouraged production. This mass production was made possible due to the development of machines and factories, which brought on great prosperity for the middle

and upper classes. One machine commonly used was the train. Railroads all across the nation brought in great fortune for the workers in this complex system.
As the Industrial Age continued, wars were fought and imperialism helped in the expansion of the United States. One example of this was the Spanish American War. This war that was solely fought in 1898, resulted in only 385 American casualties and the obtaining of the Philippines for $20 million. This growth of American soil resulted in even more prosperity in the end.
However, with many positive changes come many hardships and sufferings.

True, the middle and upper classes prospered, but the lower class suffered greatly. The poor had little to no food, especially none that had been properly handled in the factories. Children and adults alike had to work long, laborious hours in, more than likely, rather dangerous situations such as glass-making, machinery, unsanitary fertilizer-producing, and unclean food-processing. This model of superiority of the middle and upper classes over the lower class is known as Social Darwinism, Darwin’s belief that only the strong can survive (or in this case

prosper).
An example of such treacherous conditions is in a piece of literature called The Jungle. In this story, Upton Sinclair tells the story of a family who suffered the wretches of poverty in this time period. In chapter 13, after the young and innocent Kristoforas dies because of contaminated food, Jurgis (a boy of the family in this story) finds himself a job at a fertilizer plant.
“Working in his shirt sleeves and with the thermometer at over a hundred, the phosphates soaked in through every pore of Jurgis' skin, and in five minutes he had a headache, and in fifteen was almost dazed.

The blood was pounding in his brain like an engine's throbbing; there was a frightful pain in the top of his skull, and he could hardly control his hands. Still, with the memory of his four months' siege behind him, he fought on, in a frenzy of determination; and half an hour later he began to vomit--he vomited until it seemed as if his inwards must be torn into shreds. A man could get used to the fertilizer mill, the boss had said, if he would make up his mind to it; but Jurgis now began to see that it was a question of making up his stomach.”

(Sinclair)
Such conditions in the workplace are unheard of today, especially for children (who aren’t even allowed to work for a certain amount of hours until they become adults). To imagine such a life in which a child would not only have to work, but would have to work in those conditions is horrible. Yet, this was the life of many poor children and families in the Industrial Age of America. It was hardly even a life worth living.
Despite the many hardships Americans went through, this time period can truly be labeled as a progressive time for Americans. Without such a time of hardship, the necessary changes made to this society would have never occured. Food production might not have ever changed for the health of the people. Or maybe children would still be forced to work in the same dangerous conditions they were working in at the time. Whatever the progression, one can appreciate life today in this nation. Because without the Industrial Age in America, life might still be as poverty-filled and miserable as it had once been.