Alan Trachtenberg's The Incorporation Of America

Alan Trachtenberg’s The Incorporation of America examined the various changes experienced by America in the mid to late 1800s. The book started off by setting the stage for the rise of the cities and industries. This was accomplished by the westward expansion of America in the post Civil War era. In addition to integrating America, the expansion of railroads led to the extermination of the Indian population through bloody massacres and assimilationist policies. With America fully connected, industrialization and mechanization took place. This led to workers migrating to cities looking for jobs. Although workers were paid low wages, factories still sought to increase productivity without hiring more workers. This issue was solved through mechanization which virtually replaced workers with machinery. Technology was on the rise as evidenced by mechanization. More focus was placed on engineering because they were the ones that initiated the mechanization. As a result of the growth of industries, workers encountered bad working conditions as well as economic struggles. This led to the growth of labor unrest as evidenced by the abundant strikes. Labor unions such as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor became prominent and advocated better conditions and wages. As America became a major industrial power, cities started …show more content…
In the antebellum period, few writers were able to make a living from literary income alone. Now, however, writers were able to make a living solely by writing due to the prosperity of magazines. The realism movement took place in both art and literature as an effort to depict american lives in different contexts during urbanization. The White City represented the greatness of America emerged as a result of industrialization and expansion of capitalist power. This accurately depicted the industrial America that rose to prominence during this time