The United States today may seem like a country that has smoothly integrated both the agricultural economy and the industrial economy into one. However, history argues against that perception. The transition of the United States from a full agricultural economy to an increasingly industrialized one was far from “smooth.” The validity of the statement is very lucidly evidenced by the economic, social, and political changes it wrought from the late 1800s to the early 1900s.
The aspect in which industrialization brought the most change in was obviously the economy. Since more was being produced at a lesser time than before, there was a much larger profit margin on almost everything. Along with greater profits came the incentive to monopolize …show more content…
With industrialization, factories had a clear line of authority between the workers and the managers. Above the managers were the owners who reaped all the money produced by the factory at the cost of meager wages for the workers. Disparity in incomes led to a development of an upper, middle, and lower class. In the pre-industrial agricultural society, the upper class was not as defined and whether a middle class existed or not is disputable. Immigrants were primarily sought out as workers since they were easier to manipulate in terms of payment and since more children and women became hired, less money had to be paid to the workers in general. Factors like gender and immigration status led to a better living conditions for the already affluent upper class and even more squalid conditions for the lower unskilled worker class. This is evident because that unskilled workers were being crammed into tenements with about 665 people per acre of space while upper class industry leaders such as John D Rockefeller had a personal wealth of nearly $900 billion by the time of his death. Sanitation became another issue because smallpox and other deadly diseases became common at this time. The influx of immigrants from central and southern Europe also added on to the lack of clean living space issue. Ultimately, industrialization caused growth of the disparity between upper and lower class. Although it is disputable whether the agricultural society was truly egalitarian, it is clear that there was little to no vestige of social equality between the classes during industrialization
The aspect in which industrialization brought the most change in was obviously the economy. Since more was being produced at a lesser time than before, there was a much larger profit margin on almost everything. Along with greater profits came the incentive to monopolize …show more content…
With industrialization, factories had a clear line of authority between the workers and the managers. Above the managers were the owners who reaped all the money produced by the factory at the cost of meager wages for the workers. Disparity in incomes led to a development of an upper, middle, and lower class. In the pre-industrial agricultural society, the upper class was not as defined and whether a middle class existed or not is disputable. Immigrants were primarily sought out as workers since they were easier to manipulate in terms of payment and since more children and women became hired, less money had to be paid to the workers in general. Factors like gender and immigration status led to a better living conditions for the already affluent upper class and even more squalid conditions for the lower unskilled worker class. This is evident because that unskilled workers were being crammed into tenements with about 665 people per acre of space while upper class industry leaders such as John D Rockefeller had a personal wealth of nearly $900 billion by the time of his death. Sanitation became another issue because smallpox and other deadly diseases became common at this time. The influx of immigrants from central and southern Europe also added on to the lack of clean living space issue. Ultimately, industrialization caused growth of the disparity between upper and lower class. Although it is disputable whether the agricultural society was truly egalitarian, it is clear that there was little to no vestige of social equality between the classes during industrialization