Prisoner Of Poverty Summary

During the industrializing era in the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century, unskilled laborers and skilled blue-collar men struggled to even put food on their tables; the emerging middle class struggled greatly as well, but had little trouble feeding themselves in this time period. It was the wealthy elite who prospered in this period, dining and living lavishly. Labor leaders and reformers tried to used many tactics to persuade prosperous Americans to concern themselves with the issues of the day; the main tactic used was the manipulation of emotion to get others to join the reformers’ cause. This trend was part of a greater global pattern of economic insecurity in the United States, which only heightened during the Great Depression in the decades to come.

During the industrializing era, unskilled laborers and skilled blue-collar men faced many difficulties, and were the poorest classes of people in American society by far.

In Prisoners of Poverty by Helen Campbell, it is illustrated that factory workers, such as the one interviewed in the document, have very little time to cook or eat and even less money with which to buy food. The poor not only had little money with which to buy food, but poverty-stricken individuals could not buy cooking implements nor fuel either. In Promoting Nutrition, Mary Hinman Abel points out that families have very little money to use, so she built her cookbook upon the idea that a family of six only had 78 cents with which to buy food every day. The author says that the proposed audience for this book is a mother who either has no job or is a factory worker, proving that factory workers—unskilled laborers—were at the bottom of the economic

hierarchy.
In the industrializing era of the United States, the emerging middle class went through many economic struggles, but not nearly as many as the unskilled and blue collar laborers of the time. For example, in the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, a middle class family is seen giving their meal to a poorer family in need. This meal consists of higher-quality food items and a higher quantity of food than is typical of meals of lower classes. However, this family is not much more well-off. They still leave hungry and are not seen getting more food for themselves. Additionally, in an article by a German socialist, it is stated that the average American worker eats much more food than an average German worker. This is still not much, but it is a lot compared to the poverty of the German working classes. The author of the document says that there is little dissatisfaction with the social order due to this abundance of food, which proves that the American middle classes was happy and content with their economic station.
The wealthy elite of the time was the only social class that economically prospered during this time period, perhaps at the expense of the other social classes. This is exemplified in an article by Julian Street titled “Show and Extravagance”. In this article, the author recounts his experience at a dinner hosted by “some rich women”. He felt that the dinner that he was served was extravagant, a farewell feast; however, the women thought that the dinner was “plain” and “little”. The women believed that they were cutting back and helping the poorer classes by not having any champagne with their dinner! This proves two things: the first, that the wealthy elite did recognize that there was a need for cutting back due to other classes becoming poverty-stricken, and the second, that despite knowing that the other classes were in poverty, the elite still refused to abandon their way of life in order to help others. It is, however, a remarkable achievement that the elite recognized the problem at all—a result of the efforts of labor leaders and reformers trying to get the elite to help out. One of these efforts is seen in a photograph by Lewis W. Hine. Hein photographs an immigrant family at the dinner table in order to play to the emotion in viewers and to use common images of food in order to help viewers sympathize with the family photographed, and, therefore, help out with the poverty problem.
The industrializing period in the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century was a period of great economic divide among the socioeconomic classes. The majority of American society in the industrializing period was in some form of financial struggle. Only the wealthy elite did well, and it was at the expense of the lower classes. The elite lived lavishly, knowing but not caring much about the struggles of the poor, while the unskilled working classes struggled to put food on their tables … if they could afford a table.