History 7B

Prof. McLennan

Lecture 5

Colossus:
The World-Altering Forces of Industrial Capitalism,
1865-1890
 Pre-conditions for the
Second Industrial Revolution, 1865-1914
Overthrow of Confederacy and chattel slavery
>>No competition from slave states in West
European capital investment returns to US
Union war contractors with money to invest
+
Conquest of the West/Indian Removal Rapid expansion of
>> “cheap nature” (Moore)
(land, lumber, minerals, waterways)
>> industrial capitalism
and birth of mass
+ industrial society

Activist federal and state government

>>tariffs, immigration, security, free land,
armed force in strikes (eg1877)
Incorporation; 14th Amendment protections for
corporations (as persons, 1882+)
(NOT laissez faire/free market)
 The Birth of Mass Industrial Society

Lectures:

1. Colossus: The World Altering Forces of Industrial

Capitalism, 1865-1890 (today)

2. Industrializing Environments: Reinventing “Nature” in

Gilded Age America (Thurs.)

3. Technologies of Desire: Cities, Department Stores, and the

Making of Mass Consumer Culture (Tues. Feb. 11)

4. Populism and the Making of the Rural/Urban Divide: Mass

Politics & Mass Discontent, 1870-1888 (Thurs. Feb. 13)
Industrial/Steel/Manufacturing/Agribusiness Belts, c. 1877:

Agribusiness
 The Birth of Mass Industrial Society

Lectures:

1. Colossus: The World Altering Forces of Industrial

Capitalism, 1865-1890 (today)

2. Industrializing Environments: Reinventing “Nature” in

Gilded Age America (Thurs.)

3. Technologies of Desire: Cities, Department Stores, and the

Making of Mass Consumer Culture (Tues. Feb. 11)

4. Populism and the Making of the Rural/Urban Divide: Mass

Politics & Mass Discontent, 1870-1888 (Thurs. Feb. 13)
 1. Colossus: The World Altering Forces of
Industrial Capitalism, 1865-1890

I. Technical Revolution: Industrial Capitalism as a

Revolution in the Mode of Production

II. Social Revolution: Industrial Capitalism as a

Revolution in Society
From artisanal, apprenticed workshop
to wage labor factory

Glass factory, 1880s

First Industrial Factories in the US: 1820s, Lowell, MA
(Textile manufacturer)
Specialization (Textile mill, post Civil War South)
“Second Industrial Revolution” (c. 1865-1914)

Hyper-division of labor

Massive boost in production

Research and Development: science and technology

Cost cutting: especially labor>>search for cheap labor

Mechanization
Stock yards, Chicago, 1870s
 Hyper-division of labor:
Animal disassembly line, Swift and Co, Chicago, 1880s
1865-1900: Era of American Invention
The search for cheaper labor
First transcontinental railroad, completed 1869
(connects in Midwest with east coast)
 Treaty of Burlingame (1868)
US government helps railroad corporations secure cheap labor
—from China
•right of immigration to the U.S;
•access to schooling and protection from discrimination.
Chinese workers (Treaty of Burlingame, 1868)
Central Pacific Railroad, c. 1869

Carleton Watkins, Trestle, Central Pacific Railroad, c.1869

 Industrialization and the
search for cheap labor:
Agribusiness and immigrant farm
workers, 1870s-1900s
Singer Sewing Machine factory, New York City, c. 1870s
Mechanization>>less reliance on human labor power
II. Social Revolution: Industrial Capitalism as a Revolution in Society

Why was Industrial Capitalism “Revolutionary”?

1. New classes

2. New society

3. New(ish) inequality

4. New economic (and legal and political) entity: the corporation

John D Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, est. 1870
Protections for corporations as persons under 14th Amendment, 1882+
5. From economy of scarcity to economy of abundance
Falling prices
Food, clothing, appliances are increasingly affordable

6. New fissures and faults: racism within some sectors of white

working class; labor v. capital>> “industrial warfare” (eg Great Railroad
Strike of 1877.