3. The Industrial Age: Background Notes

4. “THE AMERICAN DREAM” (1880-1920)
1) "Rags to Riches": Short stories about poor people who worked hard and made a fortune in America
2) This inspired more people to immigrate to America, the “Land of Opportunity.”
3) EFFECT: a “New Wave " of immigration to the USA. Over 20 million immigrants entered the USA from

5. Immigrants Faced Discrimination

8. “LIVING THE DREAM”
1) Industrial Revolution: By 1880, Americans began to work more in factories and less on farms , as they had in the past.
(Less RURAL/"country-based," more URBAN/ "city-based" society)
2) Growth of Business: Between , the number of corporations, or large businesses, increased in America.
a. "Robber Barons": Men who built and controlled massive corporations...

9. -John D. Rockefeller/ STANDARD OIL: controlled most of the oil wells, refineries, and pipelines in America, plus many railroads.
-Andrew Carnegie/ CARNEGIE STEEL: perfected steel production and controlled mines, steel mills, and railroads around the world.

10. b. Monopolies and Trusts: extremely large corporations formed when...
-MONOPOLY ("Mono"= "one"): one corporation is rich enough to control an entire industry.
-TRUST (all "trust" each other): several corporations agree to sell their product for the same price so they control the entire industry.

12. “LIVING THE NIGHTMARE”
1) The Industrial Revolution and immigration combined to create uncontrolled "urbanization."
a. Urbanization: "the increase in population and buildings in cities"--created many problems:
-Tenements: cheap, unsafe, crowded apartments where low-paid immigrants lived
-Disease: no garbage collection, no indoor bathrooms, sewers emptied into rivers

16. Example: Chicago’s Growth

17. Here it is in 1854…
Pop. 55,000

18. …and by 1898.
Pop. 1,698,575

19. 2) The robber barons as well as monopolies and trusts wanted to keep costs low for their business—this created many problems:
a. Low Pay ($1 per day), Long Hours (10-hr day, 6 days a week)
b. Unsafe Factories: in 1900, 35,000 workers were killed in factory accidents, and 500,000 were injured

20. “ROLE OF GOVERNMENT”
1) "Laissez-Faire": “Hands-Off" approach by the US gov't toward business. Presidents and Congress did not make laws that interfered with business (Capitalism).
2) Activism: Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890): first real “Hands-On" approach by the gov't toward business. Congress passed this law to stop rich corporations from acting together to control entire industries (steel, RRs, tobacco, etc.)