HIST363: Global Perspectives on Industrialization

7a. Identify major changes to the way companies organized and managed themselves

• What did Henry Ford contribute to the manufacturing process? Describe some criticisms of his production system.
• Describe Frederick Taylor's ideas on time management and how these principles were applied to the manufacturing process in the early 1900s?
• Define social Darwinism and scientific management.
• Define trust, cartel, and monopoly.
• Discuss how corporations reorganized and restructured their manufacturing processes during the Second Industrial Revolution, including the formation of monopolies and cartels.
• Define the beliefs Andrew Carnegie held about wealth in his book, The Gospel of Wealth.

A second Industrial Revolution occurred during the late 1800s to early 1900s with the rise of the modern corporation. Powerful business leaders created large companies that focused on manufacturing products such as automobiles, steel production, oil, railroads, and telegraph (later telephone) communications. Electrification of factories allowed manufacturers to introduce new machinery to the production process to improve productivity.

In 1901, Henry Ford, the American industrialist and business magnate, founded what would become the Ford Motor Company, and further developed the assembly line technique of mass production. The company introduced the Model T in 1908, a car that was affordable, easy-to-drive, and easy-to-repair. Ford elicited a huge marketing and publicity machine that ensured every newspaper carried stories and ads about the car and a network of local dealers made it ubiquitous in almost every city in North America.

The concept of social Darwinism referred to the belief that the most productive and efficient industries would survive and prosper, while those that were less competitive would fail. Some industrial manufacturers studied principles of scientific management in which managers aimed to eliminate unnecessary motions by workers which slowed the production process. While some admired this examination of workplace efficiencies, others complained they reduced workers to mere robots.

Large corporations frequently created trusts, cartels, and monopolies to increase their profits by driving their competitors out of business. This led to new government legislation that attempted to curtail these unfair practices. Meanwhile, workers were reduced to working on endless assembly and production lines, where they repeated the same monotonous tasks all day long.

Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), the Scottish-born American businessman, argued in his book, The Gospel of Wealth, that the life of a wealthy industrialist should include two parts: first gathering and accumulating great wealth and then distributing it to benevolent causes. Carnegie wrote that a "man who dies rich dies disgraced". True to his word, Carnegie built libraries, provided pensions for university professors, and funded music halls, outdoor swimming pools, and church organs. He also created endowments to promote teaching and world peace.

Review The Rise of Big Business, The Lords of Industry by Henry Demarest Lloyd, and Fordism, Post-Fordism and the Flexible System of Production by Fred Thompson.

7b. Explain the development of organized labor and its conflicts with capitalists in the United States, Europe, and Asia

• Discuss the formation of the following unions in American labor history: the Knights of Labor, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and the International Workers of the World.
• In what ways were they similar? How did they differ? Which was most successful in the long run?
• What were the main sources of worker unrest during the Second Industrial Revolution?
• What are some examples of major strikes in American, European, and Asian labor history?

As the leaders of modern corporations and industrial capitalists were reshaping the world, workers were at a great disadvantage because they were unable to improve their pay and working conditions. Leaders of the unionization movement began fighting for the rights of workers, but the struggle continued for decades until they succeeded in forcing government intervention to prevent abuses. Workers frequently used violence to achieve basic rights that included reduced work hours, increased pay, and enforced safety regulations to protect their health and livelihood.

In the United States, Eugene Debs (1855–1926), an American labor and political leader, helped found the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). He was influenced by Karl Marx and supported the struggle for fair pay and better working conditions. He believed basic rights were often linked to social class, an unpopular belief in the United States where many claimed class did not exist. Samuel Gompers (1850–1924), who held similar views, founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which he led for all but one year from 1886 until his death in 1924.

Review the beliefs of political activists such as Karl Marx from Unit 1 who criticized the exploitative nature of industrial capitalism. Marx encouraged the proletariat to rise up in revolt against the bourgeoisie to promote better living and working conditions. This sentiment provided the philosophical basis that fueled worker and peasant rebellions, and the communist revolutions in Russia in 2017 and China in 1949.

Review Mass Politics and the Political Challenge from the Left by John Merriman, The Formation of Japanese Labor Movement, 1868-1914 by Kazuo Nimura, and Chinese Tailors' Strike in Shanghai by Fusataro Takano.

7c. Identify changes in agriculture caused by industrialization

• How were industrial techniques and processes applied to agriculture from the late 1800s to mid 1900s?
• Define the green revolution. How did the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides impact food production in the United States and globally? What were and are some of the negative impacts of industrial farming on the environment?

Industrialization not only changed the way we work, but it also changed the way we produce food, and what and how we eat. The introduction of large-scale mechanized farming and the use of chemical fertilizers, improved seed strains, and pesticides has produced an abundance of food during the past century. These new farming methods were recently termed the green revolution.

Starvation has been eradicated in many parts of the world, but many argue we are paying for this progress in terms of environmental degradation, public health, and sustainability.

Review A Brief History of Agriculture and Food Production: The Rise of Industrial Agriculture by Shawn Mackenzie.

7d. Describe methods of mass communication and advertising in the late 19th and early 20th century United States

• What techniques did newspapers and the advertising industry use to appeal to the newly developed mass consumer culture of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries?

Beginning in the late 1800s, a mass media culture developed in the United States with a new middle class and growing working class. As with the production of Henry Ford's Model T, this new mass media culture appealed to the new consumerism that accompanied these mass marketing appeals. The sensationalism of news events and compelling product endorsements, which meant to solve a problem or address a concern, also increased sales within the newspaper industry.

Review The Rise of Mass Communication and Understanding Advertising by Michael O'Malley.

Unit 7 Vocabulary

• Andrew Carnegie
• Cartel
• Eugene Debs
• Gospel of Wealth
• Green revolution
• Henry Ford
• Model T
• Monopoly
• Samuel Gompers
• Scientific management
• Social Darwinism
• Trusts