mcgraw hill, chapter 10 summery

CHAPTER 10
America’s Economic Revolution

CHAPTER SUMMARY
During the first half of the nineteenth century, the American economy underwent profound and
dynamic changes. A rapid growth in population, eventually much of it from immigration—
creating large pools of labor, innovations in communication, new industrial technology, and
expanding transportation systems—combined to spark a vast increase in national economic
wealth. In rural America there was a trend toward mechanized agriculture sufficient to feed the
growing domestic and world population. In all, by the 1850s, America had pushed itself into the
forefront of world industry. The two sections of the country most affected by this were the
Northeast and the Northwest, which were drawn closer together as a result. North-to-west trade
increased as turnpikes were followed by canals, which were followed by the railroads—the most
important industry of the age. Railroads brought the corporation style of business organization to
the nation, helped in the expansion of the telegraph, influenced the trend toward the business
practice of standardization, and stood as a symbol of national pride and ascendancy. In
manufacturing, the factory system rapidly replaced the artisan tradition of the preindustrial era.
Factories encouraged a population shift toward urban areas, greatly increased production, and
through their success resulted in the first trade unions as workers struggled to adjust to the new
methods of industry.
All of these changes in the world of work had a profound impact on American society
generally and family life specifically. More and more, activities in life became closely tied to
one’s class and gender. Despite the possibilities allowed by social mobility, the income gap
between rich and poor widened; however, the middle class, noted for its homeownership,
Victorian ideals, increased leisure activities, and better material comforts, grew the fastest. As the
nation neared 1860, the differing rates of development between the increasingly industrial North
and the still quite rural South widened. This gulf was a foreshadowing of the violent regional
split that would soon follow.

OBJECTIVES
A thorough study of Chapter 10 should enable the student to understand:

1. The reasons why the Northeast and Northwest grew more interdependent during the 1840s
and 1850s

2. The highly significant role played by railroads in industry, business practices,
communication, and society in general

3. The vast changes taking place in the Northeast as agriculture declined and urbanization and
industrialization progressed, and the impact on rural living

4. The characteristics of the immigration of the 1840s and 1850s and the impact of that
immigration on the politics and economics of the North

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5. The importance of the Erie Canal for the development of both New York City and the Old
Northwest

6. The characteristics of the “factory system,” its impact on the artisan tradition, and the living
and working conditions of both men and women in the factories of the Northeast

7. The reasons for, and description of, the technological advances made during this period

8. The emergence of middle-class life and an understanding of its values and attitudes, with
particular emphasis on the changing role of women

MAIN THEMES
1. How the rapid development of the economy in the Northeast influenced the rest of the nation

2. How Irish and German immigrants helped shape the United States during this period

3. The interrelationship between applications of new technology

4. How population growth and the transportation revolution contributed to the expansion of
business

5. The changing role of labor and the family as a result of the expansion of large-scale business

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What forces combined to produce dramatic economic growth in the United States in the
1820s and 1830s? How was this growth reflected in urban areas such as New York City?

2. What geographical factors contributed to the development of roads and canals between 1815
and 1840? What changes allowed for the rise of railroads, and why were railroads the
superior transportation system? What were the economic, political, and societal
consequences of these developments in transportation?

3. What important changes took place in the Northeast during the 1840s and 1850s? How did
these changes help draw the Northeast and Northwest closer together?

4. Discuss the impact of increased European immigration between 1840 and 1860 on American
political development, the workforce, and the character and distribution of the population.

5. Describe the types of workers recruited and the conditions they faced in America’s early
factories. How and why did workers and conditions change from the 1820s to the 1840s, and
what were the consequences of those changes? How did the Lowell factory system evolve
between the 1820s and the 1840s?

6. What were the major technological advances in industry? On farms? How did they help both
unify and contribute to divisions in the nation? What people or industries most benefited
from these changes? What people or industries were most adversely affected?

7. What accounts for the rise of the middle class? What were the characteristics of this class?
How did women’s place within the family and the family’s place within the larger society
change between the 1820s and the Civil War? What was the significance of the “cult of
domesticity”? Why was it more a northern than a southern phenomenon?

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8. How did American workers respond to rapid changes in the workplace? Why were their
efforts at union organization relatively ineffective? How significant was the loss of the
artisan tradition?

MAP EXERCISES
1. Identify the principal rivers, lakes, and canals in the Northeast in 1860.
2. Identify the regions and cities most involved in the development of the “factory system.”
3. Identify the cities linked by the canals and other cities influenced by canal construction.
4. Locate the principal railroad routes and cities on these routes as of 1860.

INTERPRETATIVE QUESTIONS BASED ON MAPS AND TEXT
1. What national advantages did New York State have that made building the Erie Canal easier?
What physical obstacles did the state have to overcome, and how was this accomplished?

2. What were the other canals in the Erie Canal system? How did this system work to the
advantage of New York City?

3. What other cities and areas gained from the Erie Canal system? What impact did this pattern
of urban development have on western trading patterns?

4. Which cities did not benefit from the canal boom? Which regions? What impact did this
irregular pattern of both canal development and urban development have on political and
economic ties between North and South? Between Northeast and Northwest?

5. Where did most of the railroad construction between 1850 and 1860 take place? How did this
construction change earlier transportation patterns?

6. Where railroads went, industry followed (and vice versa). What does the growth of railroads
between 1850 and 1860 suggest about the industrial development of the nation?

7. Compare the principal cities in 1850 to those in 1860. Where were most of the rising urban
centers located? What does this indicate about the economy and way of life of the North and
South?

8. Identify the railroad lines that linked North to South in 1850 and in 1860. What does this
suggest about how this transportation network united or divided the nation?

LIBRARY EXERCISES
The following exercise will require students to consult a historical atlas and other sources found
in most college libraries. Using these library resources and the text, they should be able to
answer the following:

1. Determine which cities were associated with the areas of greatest population density in 1820.
Which cities were associated with the areas of greatest population density in 1860? How did
the urban landscape of the nation change during this four-decade period? What cities grew to
become major urban centers? What caused this growth?

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ESSAY QUESTIONS
These questions are based on the preceding map exercises. They are designed to test students’
knowledge of the geography of the area discussed in this chapter and of its historical
development. Careful reading of the text will help students answer these questions.

1. Discuss the natural features that determined the location and growth of canal systems.
Consult the physical map in the Appendices of the text and speculate on the limits of the
canal system and on the regions that would need another form of transportation for goods.

2. Compare and contrast the railroad lines in the United States in 1850 to those in 1860. How
did this growth both unite and divide the sections of the United States? How did railroad
development shape and reflect the nation’s economic growth?

3. What impact did the spread of railroad lines have on the nation’s urban development?

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mary H. Blewett, Men, Women, and Work (1988)
Menahem Blondheim, News Over the Wires: The Telegraph and the Flow of Public Information
in America, 1844-1897 (1994)
John Bodnar, The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in America (1985)
Jeanne Boydston, Home and Work (1990)
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business
(1977)
Thomas C. Cochran, Frontiers of Change: Early Industrialization in America (1981)
Ruth Schwartz Cowan, No More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from
the Open Hearth to the Microwave (1983)
Colleen A. Dunlavy, Politics and Industrialization: Early Railroads in the United States and
Prussia (1994)
Daniel Feller, The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815-1840 (1995)
Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White (1995)
Alice Kessler-Harris, Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States
(1982)
Otto Mayr and Robert C. Post, eds., Yankee Enterprise: The Rise of the American System of
Manufacturers (1981)
Witold Ribczynski, A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in
Nineteenth-Century America (1999)
Charles G. Sellers, The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846 (1991)
Carol Sheriff, The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862
(1996)
David A. Yonderman, Aspirations and Anxieties: New England Workers and the Mechanized
Factory System, 1815-1850 (1992)

For Internet resources, practice questions, references to additional books and films, and more,
see this book’s Online Learning Center at www.mhhe.com/unfinishednation4.