Industrial Revolution Vocab

1. Adam Smith: Adam Smith was a philosopher and economic theorist born in Scotland in
1723.
2. Karl Marx: Considered the father of communism and one of the most outstanding
figures in the history of humanity.
3. capitalism: an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are
controlled by private owners for profit.
4. socialism : a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that
the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by
the community as a whole.
5. communism: a person who supports or believes in the principles of communism.
6. assembly line: An assembly line is a production process that breaks the manufacture of
a good into steps that are completed in a pre-defined sequence.
7. capital: the most important city or town of a country or region, usually its seat of
government and administrative center.
8. corporation: a company or group of people authorized to act as a single entity (legally a
person) and recognized as such in law.
9. cottage industry: a business or manufacturing activity carried on in a person's home.
10. entrepreneur: a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on
greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.
11. feminism: the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.
12. Industrialization: the development of industries in a country or region on a wide scale.
13. labor unions: an organized association of workers, often in a trade or profession, formed
to protect and further their rights and interests.
14. laissez-faire: a policy of minimum governmental interference in the economic affairs of
individuals and society.
15. mass production: the production of large quantities of a standardized article by an
automated mechanical process.
16. proletariat: workers or working-class people, regarded collectively.
17. social class: a division of a society based on social and economic status.
18. social Darwinism: the theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the
same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals.
19. suffrage: the right to vote in political elections.
20. urbanization: the process of making an area more urban.