How Did The Industrial Revolution Affect The United States

As the Civil War ended the United States entered the Industrial Revolution. During this revolution the United States changed its focus on reconstructing to modernization. With the expansion of railroads and the rapid growth of industrial cities and manufacturing, the United States was moving towards a more urban and industrial society. During this time it was also known as the “Gilded Age” because money, political corruption, and the economic inequities were major factors that contributed to the growth of the country. Along with this the upper class was growing richer at a dramatic rate while the middle class grew steadily, however the lower class did not benefit much from the industrial growth. With new mass manufacturing skills replacing …show more content…
Seeing these photos the middle class feared that the lifestyle of the immigrants could spread, therefore the middle class pushed for many reforms. The new reforms would help improve the safety, living environment, and productivity of the immigrant community.
As the industrial revolution began many people thought that it would cause the fall of farming, however this did not happen until the end of the First World War. Continuing through the revolution new manufacturing and technological advances had caused much of the older ways of doing things to become obsolete, thus requiring a new set of workers. Naturally the need for more workers meant more jobs and the news of this spread throughout the world. Looking upon the United States step towards modernization the only two social classes that truly benefited from it were the upper and middle classes. The upper class were generally the owners of these new businesses while the middle class found jobs working for these large corporations. Because of this it was easy to see that when the immigrants arrived they were put into the lower working class. Much of the people in this class were non-whites therefore many faced racial discrimination.