Unit 7: Mass Production, the Labor Movement, and the Consumer Society
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a so-called "Second Industrial Revolution" centered on electronics and chemicals brought new changes to industrial production and everyday life. While the inventions and early successes of the first Industrial Revolution were the work of small businessmen and individual capitalists, the innovations of the second phase came out of large business organizations. Fierce competition among these companies led to the consolidation of industries by monopoly firms or the creation of cartels. New ideas changed how people worked within these giant firms, resulting in even greater improvements in the speed and efficiency of production. Workers reacted to these changes by forming political associations, seeking bargaining power with large capitalists. For all classes, this period represented a transition to a mass society, characterized by the large-scale marketing and distribution of products, services, and ideas. New machines and new media turned individuals living in limited regions into consumers of products and information from a vast national or international community.
In this unit, we will examine the institutional, political, and social changes that came to industrialized societies in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 4 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- identify major changes to the way companies organized and managed themselves;
- explain the development of organized labor and its conflicts with capitalists in the United States, Europe, and Asia;
- identify changes in agriculture caused by industrialization; and
- describe methods of mass communication and advertising in the late 19th and early 20th century United States.
7.1: New Industrial Organizations
7.1.1: Large Corporations
Read the ten articles in this unit to learn how large corporations emerged in the industrializing United States.
7.1.2: Cartels and Monopoly Capitalism
Read this article from the late nineteenth century to learn about industrial trusts and cartels and why people objected to them.
7.1.3: Taylorism and Fordism
Read the article to learn about Frederick Taylor's contribution to industrial management.
Read this excerpt of Frederick Taylor's work.
7.2: Organized Labor and Politics
7.2.1: Workers and Capitalists in the United States
Read the fifteen articles in this unit to learn how American workers responded to changes in industry.
- Receive a grade
One of the most important results of the process of global industrialization has been the rise of new forms of organized labor. This assignment will help you identify and explain key concepts, people, and events from the history of organized labor by examining a very specific context: the struggle between organized labor and capitalists in the United States around the turn of the twentieth century. This was one of the most contentious periods in the battle between labor and capital, when people literally fought in the streets and in factories about their right to work and under what conditions. It is important to understand this tumultuous period, because it provides the context for much of the relationship between labor and capital in the twentieth century.
This assessment is ungraded, and will not affect your final course grade.
7.2.2: Workers and Capitalists in Europe
Watch this lecture by John Merriman. Focus on how labor movements formed political organizations in Europe.
7.2.3: Workers and Capitalists in Asia
Read this article about the formation of the Japanese labor movement.
Read this article about a labor protest in China.
7.3: Consumer Goods and Everyday Life
7.3.1: Industrialized Agriculture
Read these slides, which provide a background on agriculture and the history of the industrialization of agriculture.
7.3.2: Mass Communications and Mass Marketing
Read this article to learn about the new media industries that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Read this article to learn how advertising helped industries reach new consumers and sell products in new ways.
