Industrialization in 19th and 20th Century

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America was a time of rapid growth for people all across the country. The Industrial Revolution began a few years after the Civil War with the invention of steam powered machines. From there, America faced a time of massive expansion and modern industrialized cities popped up across the United States. While there was much success across the nation, such as manual labor becoming easier and a huge population growth, the negative effects of industrialization outweigh the positives. A few of the issues that made industrialization an atrocious time for many was the racism and segregation towards immigrants and unsafe and unfair working conditions/the deprivation of a regular childhood for kids across the nation.

In the years leading up to the industrial era, manual labor was required across the country in order to produce goods such as wheat, steel, or other raw materials. In order to create these, skilled workers were needed so they could produce the materials. While the materials that the skilled workers made were of a high quality, there was a drawback; in order to make such high quality materials, companies needed to pay these workers more than the average worker. In response to this, companies set out to find a way to make more product for cheaper. A prime example of how they did this is when they created the Bessemer process. This is a machine/process that converts iron into steel via injection of air into the raw iron. The process is credited with launching the steel industry and cheapening the cost of production because it was no longer necessary to employ high skilled workers (Document B). With this, the need for highly paid skilled workers was no longer necessary because steel companies could employ low skill workers and pr...

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... dresses more since I know that from the very beginning when the cotton is ripe in the hot sun, little boys and girls must pick it for my dresses, while their backs grow tired and their heads ache”. This shows that the girl in this passage appreciates her clothes more because she knows that children are being forced to labor in the fields so that the cotton they pick can be used to make different items. With this, many children across the country are being deprived of a regular childhood and are not being allowed to do what they want as kids.

Industrialization was a period of rapid expansion in the 19th and 20th century for the United States and had a profound effect on the country. Although there was much success across the country, such as massive population growth and manual labor becoming easier, the negative effects of industrialization outweigh the positives.

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