industrial revolution thesis

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Industrial Revolution

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 27, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

The Industrial Revolution was a period of scientific and technological development in the 18th century that transformed largely rural, agrarian societies—especially in Europe and North America—into industrialized, urban ones. Goods that had once been painstakingly crafted by hand started to be produced in mass quantities by machines in factories, thanks to the introduction of new machines and techniques in textiles, iron making and other industries.

When Was the Industrial Revolution?

Though a few innovations were developed as early as the 1700s, the Industrial Revolution began in earnest by the 1830s and 1840s in Britain, and soon spread to the rest of the world, including the United States.

Modern historians often refer to this period as the First Industrial Revolution, to set it apart from a second period of industrialization that took place from the late 19th to early 20th centuries and saw rapid advances in the steel, electric and automobile industries. 

Spinning Jenny

Thanks in part to its damp climate, ideal for raising sheep, Britain had a long history of producing textiles like wool, linen and cotton. But prior to the Industrial Revolution, the British textile business was a true “cottage industry,” with the work performed in small workshops or even homes by individual spinners, weavers and dyers.

Starting in the mid-18th century, innovations like the spinning jenny (a wooden frame with multiple spindles), the flying shuttle, the water frame and the power loom made weaving cloth and spinning yarn and thread much easier. Producing cloth became faster and required less time and far less human labor.

More efficient, mechanized production meant Britain’s new textile factories could meet the growing demand for cloth both at home and abroad, where the British Empire’s many overseas colonies provided a captive market for its goods. In addition to textiles, the British iron industry also adopted new innovations.

Chief among the new techniques was the smelting of iron ore with coke (a material made by heating coal) instead of the traditional charcoal. This method was both cheaper and produced higher-quality material, enabling Britain’s iron and steel production to expand in response to demand created by the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) and the later growth of the railroad industry. 

Impact of Steam Power 

An icon of the Industrial Revolution broke onto the scene in the early 1700s, when Thomas Newcomen designed the prototype for the first modern steam engine . Called the “atmospheric steam engine,” Newcomen’s invention was originally applied to power the machines used to pump water out of mine shafts.

In the 1760s, Scottish engineer James Watt began tinkering with one of Newcomen’s models, adding a separate water condenser that made it far more efficient. Watt later collaborated with Matthew Boulton to invent a steam engine with a rotary motion, a key innovation that would allow steam power to spread across British industries, including flour, paper, and cotton mills, iron works, distilleries, waterworks and canals.

Just as steam engines needed coal, steam power allowed miners to go deeper and extract more of this relatively cheap energy source. The demand for coal skyrocketed throughout the Industrial Revolution and beyond, as it would be needed to run not only the factories used to produce manufactured goods, but also the railroads and steamships used for transporting them.

Transportation During the Industrial Revolution

Britain’s road network, which had been relatively primitive prior to industrialization, soon saw substantial improvements, and more than 2,000 miles of canals were in use across Britain by 1815.

In the early 1800s, Richard Trevithick debuted a steam-powered locomotive, and in 1830 similar locomotives started transporting freight (and passengers) between the industrial hubs of Manchester and Liverpool. By that time, steam-powered boats and ships were already in wide use, carrying goods along Britain’s rivers and canals as well as across the Atlantic.

Banking and Communication in the Industrial Revolution

In 1776, Scottish social philosopher Adam Smith , who is regarded as the founder of modern economics, published The Wealth of Nations . In it, Smith promoted an economic system based on free enterprise, the private ownership of means of production, and lack of government interference.

Banks and industrial financiers soon rose to new prominence during this period, as well as a factory system dependent on owners and managers. A stock exchange was established in London in the 1770s; the New York Stock Exchange was founded in the early 1790s.

The latter part of the Industrial Revolution also saw key advances in communication methods, as people increasingly saw the need to communicate efficiently over long distances. In 1837, British inventors William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patented the first commercial telegraphy system, even as Samuel Morse and other inventors worked on their own versions in the United States.

Cooke and Wheatstone’s system would be used for railroad signaling, as the speed of the new steam-powered trains created a need for more sophisticated means of communication.

Labor Movement 

Though many people in Britain had begun moving to the cities from rural areas before the Industrial Revolution, this process accelerated dramatically with industrialization, as the rise of large factories turned smaller towns into major cities over the span of decades. This rapid urbanization brought significant challenges, as overcrowded cities suffered from pollution, inadequate sanitation, miserable housing conditions and a lack of safe drinking water.

Meanwhile, even as industrialization increased economic output overall and improved the standard of living for the middle and upper classes, poor and working class people continued to struggle. The mechanization of labor created by technological innovation had made working in factories increasingly tedious (and sometimes dangerous), and many workers—including children—were forced to work long hours for pitifully low wages.

Such dramatic changes and abuses fueled opposition to industrialization worldwide, including the “ Luddites ,” known for their violent resistance to changes in Britain’s textile industry.

Did you know? The word "luddite" refers to a person who is opposed to technological change. The term is derived from a group of early 19th century English workers who attacked factories and destroyed machinery as a means of protest. They were supposedly led by a man named Ned Ludd, though he may have been an apocryphal figure.

In the decades to come, outrage over substandard working and living conditions would fuel the formation of labor unions , as well as the passage of new child labor laws and public health regulations in both Britain and the United States, all aimed at improving life for working class and poor citizens who had been negatively impacted by industrialization.

The Industrial Revolution in the United States

The beginning of industrialization in the United States is usually pegged to the opening of a textile mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1793 by the recent English immigrant Samuel Slater. Slater had worked at one of the mills opened by Richard Arkwright (inventor of the water frame) mills, and despite laws prohibiting the emigration of textile workers, he brought Arkwright’s designs across the Atlantic. He later built several other cotton mills in New England, and became known as the “Father of the American Industrial Revolution.”

The United States followed its own path to industrialization, spurred by innovations “borrowed” from Britain as well as by homegrown inventors like Eli Whitney . Whitney’s 1793 invention of the cotton gin (short for “engine”) revolutionized the nation’s cotton industry (and strengthened the hold of slavery over the cotton-producing South).

By the end of the 19th century, with the so-called Second Industrial Revolution underway, the United States would also transition from a largely agrarian society to an increasingly urbanized one, with all the attendant problems.

By the mid-19th century, industrialization was well-established throughout the western part of Europe and America’s northeastern region. By the early 20th century, the U.S. had become the world’s leading industrial nation.

Effects of the Industrial Revolution

Historians continue to debate many aspects of industrialization, including its exact timeline, why it began in Britain as opposed to other parts of the world and the idea that it was actually more of a gradual evolution than a revolution. The positives and negatives of the Industrial Revolution are complex.

On one hand, unsafe working conditions were rife and environmental pollution from coal and gas are legacies we still struggle with today. On the other, the move to cities and ingenious inventions that made clothing, communication and transportation more affordable and accessible to the masses changed the course of world history.

Regardless of these questions, the Industrial Revolution had a transformative economic, social and cultural impact, and played an integral role in laying the foundations for modern society. 

Photo Galleries

Robert C. Allen, The Industrial Revolution: A Very Short Introduction . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007  Claire Hopley, “A History of the British Cotton Industry.” British Heritage Travel , July 29, 2006 William Rosen, The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention . New York: Random House, 2010 Gavin Weightman, The Industrial Revolutionaries: The Making of the Modern World, 1776-1914 . New York: Grove Press, 2007 Matthew White, “Georgian Britain: The Industrial Revolution.” British Library , October 14, 2009 

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The ‘industrial revolution’: interpretations from 1830 to the present

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For contemporaries, Britain’s success in developing the technologies of the early Industrial Revolution rested in large part on its abundant supply of artisan skills, notably in metalworking. In this paper we outline a simple process where successful industrialization occurs in regions that start with low wages and high mechanical skills, and show that these two factors strongly explain the growth of the tex- tile industry across the 41 counties of England between the 1760s and 1830s. By contrast, literacy and access to capital have no power in predicting industrialization, nor does proximity to coal. Although unimportant as a source of power for early textile machinery, Britain’s coal was vital as a source of cheap heat that allowed it over centuries to develop a unique range of sophisticated metalworking industries. From these activities came artisans, from watchmakers to iron founders, whose industrial skills were in demand not just in Britain but across all of Eu- rope. Against the view that living standards were stagnant during the Industrial Revolution, we find that real wages rose sharply in the industrializing north and collapsed in the previously prosperous south.

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Much of the recent debate in early modern European labor and economic history has centered on Jan de Vries's concept of the industrious revolution. Briefly, he claimed that workers during the period 1650-1800 chose to labor longer hours, often at greater intensity, in order to consume novel manufactured goods and imported commodities. Moreover, plebeian families increasingly pursued new employments beyond the household to pay for these objects. As a result, men, women, and children spent ever more hours in waged labor, and their growing purchasing power proved decisive in stimulating large-scale European industrialization. My work on the history of French and English papermaking raises fundamental challenges to this model. First, paperworkers already labored exhausting hours at the outset of de Vries's period of newfound industriousness. Second, masters and workers alike knew that they had to both "speed up" and "take their time" to turn out quality paper at the expected rate. Third, women and adolescent workers toiled for wages in paper mills long before the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. On the eve of large-scale mechanization, enduring shopfloor realities, skills, and quotas prevented a surge of productivity beyond papermaking's familiar standards. With the demand for paper rising rapidly, it was the absence of an industrious revolution in papermaking that turned the manufacturers' attention first to enlarged mills and small technological shifts, and finally, to the development of a papermaking machine.

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Industrial Revolution Causes and Effects

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Descriptive Essay: The Industrial Revolution and its Effects

The Industrial Revolution was a time of great age throughout the world. It represented major change from 1760 to the period 1820-1840. The movement originated in Great Britain and affected everything from industrial manufacturing processes to the daily life of the average citizen. I will discuss the Industrial Revolution and the effects it had on the world as a whole.

The primary industry of the time was the textiles industry. It had the most employees, output value, and invested capital. It was the first to take on new modern production methods. The transition to machine power drastically increased productivity and efficiency. This extended to iron production and chemical production.

It started in Great Britain and soon expanded into Western Europe and to the United States. The actual effects of the revolution on different sections of society differed. They manifested themselves at different times. The ‘trickle down’ effect whereby the benefits of the revolution helped the lower classes didn’t happen until towards the 1830s and 1840s. Initially, machines like the Watt Steam Engine and the Spinning Jenny only benefited the rich industrialists.

The effects on the general population, when they did come, were major. Prior to the revolution, most cotton spinning was done with a wheel in the home. These advances allowed families to increase their productivity and output. It gave them more disposable income and enabled them to facilitate the growth of a larger consumer goods market. The lower classes were able to spend. For the first time in history, the masses had a sustained growth in living standards.

Social historians noted the change in where people lived. Industrialists wanted more workers and the new technology largely confined itself to large factories in the cities. Thousands of people who lived in the countryside migrated to the cities permanently. It led to the growth of cities across the world, including London, Manchester, and Boston. The permanent shift from rural living to city living has endured to the present day.

Trade between nations increased as they often had massive surpluses of consumer goods they couldn’t sell in the domestic market. The rate of trade increased and made nations like Great Britain and the United States richer than ever before. Naturally, this translated to military power and the ability to sustain worldwide trade networks and colonies.

On the other hand, the Industrial Revolution and migration led to the mass exploitation of workers and slums. To counter this, workers formed trade unions. They fought back against employers to win rights for themselves and their families. The formation of trade unions and the collective unity of workers across industries are still existent today. It was the first time workers could make demands of their employers. It enfranchised them and gave them rights to upset the status quo and force employers to view their workers as human beings like them.

Overall, the Industrial Revolution was one of the single biggest events in human history. It launched the modern age and drove industrial technology forward at a faster rate than ever before. Even contemporary economics experts failed to predict the extent of the revolution and its effects on world history. It shows why the Industrial Revolution played such a vital role in the building of the United States of today.

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The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was the transition from creating goods by hand to using machines. Its start and end are widely debated by scholars, but the period generally spanned from about 1760 to 1840. According to some, this turning point in history is responsible for an increase in population, an increase in the standard of living, and the emergence of the capitalist economy.

Teach your students about the Industrial Revolution with these resources.

Social Studies, U.S. History, World History

Industrial Revolution

The concept of an industrial revolution denotes an economic transition in which the means of production become increasingly specialized, mechanized, and organized. This process uses technology, in some association with science, to create large increases in the productive capacity of an economy, which in turn eventually transforms society as a whole. Industrial revolution is less violent or dramatic than political revolution and has roots that extend into the preindustrial agrarian past as well as consequences that continue to influence distant places and times. 

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Industrial revolution overview.

“Industrial Revolution." Gale In Context: World History , Gale, 2022.

The Industrial Revolution (c. eighteenth-nineteenth centuries) was the transition from an agricultural- to a manufacturing-based economy. It led to widespread mechanization and urbanization, which greatly improved people's standards of living. In doing so, the Industrial Revolution caused sweeping socioeconomic changes across Europe and around the world.

• The Industrial Revolution was the transition from an agricultural- to a manufacturing-based economy. It caused sweeping socioeconomic changes across Europe and around the world.
• Great Britain was the birthplace of the transition from rural, agricultural-based societies to industrialized, urban ones. Britain underwent an Agricultural Revolution during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, which saw a dramatic increase in agricultural production and a growth for other industries in succeeding centuries.
• Cotton textile manufacturing, steam power, and the mass production of iron and steel were closely linked with the rise of industrialization in Britain. These industries became the foundations for the rapid progress of the Industrial Revolution.
• The Industrial Revolution greatly improved the quality of life for many people and ushered in an unprecedented level of economic prosperity. However, the Industrial Revolution also relied on child labor, especially during its earliest years; left long-term environmental impacts; and contributed to rising global temperatures and climate change.

First, an Agricultural Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a major turning point in history. It marked the transition from rural, agricultural-based societies to industrialized, urban ones. Britain was key to this transition. By the nineteenth century, Britain was a major player in industrial development, and it held large reserves of coal and iron. Moreover, Britain controlled many overseas colonies, which gave it the resources it needed to conduct industrialization on a large scale.

From 1600 to 1800, developments in agriculture enabled Britain to dramatically increase agricultural production. This revolution introduced new inventions which made farm work more efficient and crops more bountiful. It provided the spark for the growth of other industries in succeeding decades.

The Inventions that Spearheaded the Industrial Revolution

Several industries were closely linked with the rise of industrialization in Britain. One of these was textile manufacturing, particularly cotton textiles. Once a cottage industry, cotton was in high demand because of fashion trends at the time.

This rising demand led to several inventions that sped up cotton production during the eighteenth century. Some of these were: John Kay's (1704-c. 1779) flying shuttle, James Hargreaves's (c. 1720-1778) spinning jenny, Samuel Crompton's (1753-1827) spinning mule, and Edmund Cartwright's (c. eighteenth century) power loom. The cotton gin, which was invented by the American Eli Whitney (1765-1825), was another major advance in cotton production. These early devices greatly reduced the amount of time needed to produce cotton textiles, leading to a boom in the industry. Because child labor laws were generally non-existent in Great Britain (and the United States) prior to the twentieth century, young people were often relied upon for factory work. Education was generally a privilege afforded primarily to the wealthy.

Steam power was another early innovation of the Industrial Revolution. The first steam engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen (1664-1729). It was later improved and patented by James Watt (1736-1819) in 1769. A few decades later, American inventor Robert Fulton (1765-1815) used steam power to create the first steamboat in 1807. Finally, in 1814, George Stephenson (1781-1848) created the first steam locomotive. Steam power quickly revolutionized the transportation industry, allowing people to travel much faster across long distances. It also provided the basis for the manufacture of other products, including textiles.

Another invention that made it easier for long-distance interactions was the telegraph. In 1837, inventors William Cooke (1806-1879) and Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875) introduced the first commercial telegraph. This greatly improved communications, as people could now send messages to each other over long distances in a much shorter timeframe than through traditional post.

The mass production of iron and steel also became key components in early industrialization efforts. These industries were spurred by Abraham Darby's (1678-1717) blast furnace and Henry Bessemer's (1813-1898) steel-processing techniques. Mining was improved by these innovations, which facilitated the growing demands for coal and iron. As with textiles, child labor was common in both mining and the steel manufacturing industries.

These various enterprises became the foundations for the rapid progress of the Industrial Revolution. Trade and commerce were now more efficient. The manufacturing of other goods and the processing of raw materials were further improved by the creation of machine tools. Factory work led to the rise of mass production, which replaced artisan labor. The rise of mass production meant that new sets of skills were needed in the workforce to operate the heavy machinery.

The Industrial Revolution's Monumental Impacts

The Industrial Revolution greatly improved the quality of life for many people and ushered in an unprecedented level of economic prosperity. Improvements in transportation, communication, and commerce led to more sophisticated ways of doing business. Banks and financial institutions such as stock exchanges became important cornerstones in industrial production as a means of raising capital. This increased economic prosperity drew many people from rural areas to work in factories, resulting in the growth of cities. It also led to the expansion and urbanization of rural areas to accommodate factory production.

But the Industrial Revolution also left harmful effects on the people and the environment. Working conditions in factories were often harsh and unsanitary. Many industries relied on child labor, as children were unlikely to challenge supervisors and often could operate machinery just as well as adult laborers could.

Moreover, the Industrial Revolution led to long-term environmental impacts. Over the course of the nineteenth century, factories belched out smoke and other pollutants into the atmosphere. This not only became a public health hazard, but also eventually contributed to rising global temperatures and climate change.

Critical Thinking Questions

• How did the Industrial Revolution transform society?
• What are some reasons cities grew so dramatically during this period?
• Why might new inventions have been so much more common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

More Articles

• Allen, Robert C. The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective . Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Morris, Charles R. The Dawn of Innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution. New York: NY:   PublicAffairs. 2012.
• Stearns, Peter N. The Industrial Revolution in World History , fourth edition. Routledge, 2012.
• Weightman, Gavin. The Industrial Revolutionaries: The Making of the Modern World. New York, NY: Grove Press, 2010.

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Essays on Industrial Revolution

Industrial revolution essay topics and outline examples, essay title 1: the industrial revolution: catalyst for economic transformation and social change.

Thesis Statement: This essay explores the Industrial Revolution as a pivotal period in history, analyzing its role as a catalyst for economic transformation, technological innovation, and significant societal changes in labor, urbanization, and living conditions.

• Introduction
• The Emergence of Industrialization: Transition from Agrarian to Industrial Society
• Technological Advancements: Inventions and Their Impact on Production
• Factory System and Labor: The Changing Nature of Work
• Urbanization and Its Consequences: The Growth of Industrial Cities
• Social Reforms and Challenges: Responses to Inequities and Labor Conditions
• Legacy of the Industrial Revolution: Long-Term Effects on Modern Society

Essay Title 2: The Dark Side of Progress: Environmental Consequences and Labor Exploitation during the Industrial Revolution

Thesis Statement: This essay critically examines the Industrial Revolution, shedding light on its environmental consequences, the exploitation of laborers, and the ethical dilemmas that arose as a result of rapid industrialization.

• Environmental Impact: Pollution, Deforestation, and Resource Depletion
• Factory Conditions and Child Labor: The Human Cost of Industrialization
• Ethical Considerations: Debates on Economic Gain vs. Social Welfare
• Worker Movements and Labor Reforms: Struggles for Workers' Rights
• The Industrial Revolution and Globalization: Impact Beyond Borders
• Reevaluating Progress: Lessons for Sustainable Development

Essay Title 3: The Industrial Revolution and Its Influence on Modern Economic Systems and Technological Advancements

Thesis Statement: This essay analyzes the profound influence of the Industrial Revolution on contemporary economic systems, technological innovations, and the enduring legacy of industrialization in shaping our modern world.

• Capitalism and Industrialization: The Birth of Modern Economic Systems
• Technological Breakthroughs: The Impact of the Steam Engine, Textile Industry, and More
• The Role of Industrial Giants: Key Figures and Their Contributions
• Globalization and Trade Networks: Connecting Continents and Markets
• Innovation and the Information Age: Tracing Technological Progress
• Contemporary Challenges and Opportunities: Navigating the Post-Industrial World

Prompt Examples for Industrial Revolution Essays

The impact of industrialization on society.

Examine the social consequences of the Industrial Revolution. How did the shift from agrarian economies to industrialized societies affect the lives of individuals, families, and communities? Discuss changes in work, living conditions, and social structures.

The Role of Technological Advancements

Analyze the technological innovations that drove the Industrial Revolution. Explore the inventions and advancements in industry, transportation, and communication that transformed economies and societies. Discuss their significance and long-term effects.

Economic Transformation and Capitalism

Discuss the economic aspects of the Industrial Revolution. How did the rise of industrial capitalism reshape economic systems and create new opportunities and challenges for businesses and workers? Analyze the growth of factories, trade, and global markets.

Labor Movements and Workers' Rights

Examine the emergence of labor movements and workers' rights during the Industrial Revolution. Discuss the conditions and struggles faced by laborers and the efforts to improve working conditions, wages, and labor laws. Explore the role of unions and collective action.

Urbanization and the Growth of Cities

Explore the process of urbanization and the rapid growth of cities during the Industrial Revolution. Discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by urban life, including issues of overcrowding, sanitation, and social inequality.

Environmental Impacts and Sustainability

Analyze the environmental impacts of industrialization. How did the Industrial Revolution contribute to pollution, resource depletion, and environmental degradation? Discuss the early awareness of these issues and the emergence of sustainability concerns.

The Sadler Report and The Industrial Revolution

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1733 - 1913

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain in the mid-18th century. The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. The beginning of industrialization in the United States is started with the opening of a textile mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1793 by Samuel Slater.

There was a few reasons of the beginning of Industrial Revolution: shortage of wood and the abundance of convenient coal deposits; high literacy rates; cheap cotton produced by slaves in North America; system of free enterprise.

Samuel Slater is most associated with starting up the textiles industry in the U.S. An early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" and the "Father of the American Factory System". He opened a textile mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1793.

There were many improvements in technology and manufacturing fundamentals that improved overall production and economic growth in the United States. Several great American inventions affected manufacturing, communications, transportation, and commercial agriculture.

The Industrial Revolution resulted in greater wealth and a larger population in Europe as well as in the United States. From 1700 to 1900, there was huge migration of people living in villages to moving into towns and cities for work. The Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in history. During the Industrial Revolution, environmental pollution increased.

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The Industrial Revolution took place over more than a century, as production of goods moved from home businesses, where products were generally crafted by hand, to machine-aided production in factories. This revolution, which involved major changes in transportation, manufacturing, and communications, transformed the daily lives of Americans as much as— and arguably more than—any single event in U.S. history.

An early landmark moment in the Industrial Revolution came near the end of the eighteenth century, when Samuel Slater brought new manufacturing technologies from Britain to the United States and founded the first U.S. cotton mill in Beverly, Massachusetts. Slater’s Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, like many of the mills and factories that sprang up in the next few decades, was powered by water, which confined industrial development to the northeast at first. The concentration of industry in the Northeast also facilitated the development of transportation systems such as railroads and canals, which encouraged commerce and trade.

The technological innovation that would come to mark the United States in the nineteenth century began to show itself with Robert Fulton’s establishment of steamboat service on the Hudson River, Samuel F. B. Morse’s invention of the telegraph, and Elias Howe’s invention of the sewing machine, all before the Civil War. Following the Civil War, industrialization in the United States increased at a breakneck pace. This period, encompassing most of the second half of the nineteenth century, has been called the Second Industrial Revolution or the American Industrial Revolution. Over the first half of the century, the country expanded greatly, and the new territory was rich in natural resources. Completing the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 was a major milestone, making it easier to transport people, raw materials, and products. The United States also had vast human resources: between 1860 and 1900, fourteen million immigrants came to the country, providing workers for an array of industries.

The American industrialists overseeing this expansion were ready to take risks to make their businesses successful. Andrew Carnegie established the first steel mills in the U.S. to use the British “Bessemer process” for mass producing steel, becoming a titan of the steel industry in the process. He acquired business interests in the mines that produced the raw material for steel, the mills and ovens that created the final product and the railroads and shipping lines that transported the goods, thus controlling every aspect of the steelmaking process.

Other industrialists, including John D. Rockefeller, merged the operations of many large companies to form a trust. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust came to monopolize 90% of the industry, severely limiting competition. These monopolies were often accused of intimidating smaller businesses and competitors in order to maintain high prices and profits. Economic influence gave these industrial magnates significant political clout as well. The U.S. government adopted policies that supported industrial development such as providing land for the construction of railroads and maintaining high tariffs to protect American industry from foreign competition.

American inventors like Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Alva Edison created a long list of new technologies that improved communication, transportation, and industrial production. Edison made improvements to existing technologies, including the telegraph while also creating revolutionary new technologies such as the light bulb, the phonograph, the kinetograph, and the electric dynamo. Bell, meanwhile, explored new speaking and hearing technologies, and became known as the inventor of the telephone.

For millions of working Americans, the industrial revolution changed the very nature of their daily work. Previously, they might have worked for themselves at home, in a small shop, or outdoors, crafting raw materials into products, or growing a crop from seed to table. When they took factory jobs, they were working for a large company. The repetitive work often involved only one small step in the manufacturing process, so the worker did not see or appreciate what was being made; the work was often dangerous and performed in unsanitary conditions. Some women entered the work force, as did many children. Child labor became a major issue. Dangerous working conditions, long hours, and concern over wages and child labor contributed to the growth of labor unions. In the decades after the Civil War, workers organized strikes and work stoppages that helped to publicize their problems. One especially significant labor upheaval was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Wage cuts in the railroad industry led to the strike, which began in West Virginia and spread to three additional states over a period of 45 days before being violently ended by a combination of vigilantes, National Guardsmen, and federal troops. Similar episodes occurred more frequently in the following decades as workers organized and asserted themselves against perceived injustices.

The new jobs for the working class were in the cities. Thus, the Industrial Revolution began the transition of the United States from a rural to an urban society. Young people raised on farms saw greater opportunities in the cities and moved there, as did millions of immigrants from Europe. Providing housing for all the new residents of cities was a problem, and many workers found themselves living in urban slums; open sewers ran alongside the streets, and the water supply was often tainted, causing disease. These deplorable urban conditions gave rise to the Progressive Movement in the early twentieth century; the result would be many new laws to protect and support people, eventually changing the relationship between government and the people.

The Industrial Revolution is a complex set of economic, technological, and social changes that occurred over a substantial period of time. Teachers should consider the documents in this collection as tools for stimulating student thinking about aspects of the Industrial Revolution.

Suggestions for Teachers

• After providing a definition of the Industrial Revolution and explaining the time span across which it took place, teachers might supply small groups of students with a set of the documents in this primary source set. Students can categorize the documents by whether they provide information about what happened, why it happened, or its effects. Some documents may fit into more than one category. When small groups have completed their work, the teacher can facilitate creating a class list of events of the Industrial Revolution, causes (or supporting factors), and effects. Students may search the Library’s online collections to find additional evidence to support the causes and effects on the class chart.
• Using the documents in this primary source set, students can create a timeline of important events in the Industrial Revolution. The last document in the set is dated 1919. Was the Industrial Revolution over by 1919? Challenge students to find evidence in the Library of Congress digital collections to support their answer (there are documents that suggest industrialization in the South was still taking place into the 1930s).
• Understanding a historical event as it was experienced by those who lived through it is an important skill of historical thinking—and one that can be difficult to develop. Teachers may challenge students to study documents in the collection to identify varied perspectives on the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution, as experienced by people of the day. Would students classify the responses as mainly positive, mainly negative, or about equally divided? How did people respond to what they perceived as negative effects of the Industrial Revolution?
• In 1893, Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition, which highlighted achievements of the United States and other nations in a variety of fields, including manufacturing and technology. An entire building was devoted to electricity. Using the primary source set as a starting point, ask students to design an exhibit about the development of American industry for the World’s Columbian Exposition.

Additional Resources

Detroit Publishing Company

Built in America

Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers at the Library of Congress

Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works

National Child Labor Committee Collection

153 Industrial Revolution Essay Topics & Examples

If you’re looking for the Industrial Revolution essay examples and topics, this page is for you. Below, find ideas on how different inventions changed the world and people.

Our IvyPanda team has provided these Industrial Revolution essay questions and topics so that you don’t have to worry about missing an engaging idea. Interested in describing the phenomenon in America or Britain? Willing to explore public health and how society changed due to new machines? We have perfect titles for you! Plus, check our tips on formulating the Industrial Revolution thesis statement and writing the essay.

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• Impact on Society During the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period of rapid technological advancements that transformed society in numerous ways. It was a time of great change, and its impact on society was immense. From the development of new machinery to the emergence of new industries, the Industrial Revolution had a profound effect on people's lives. In this article, we will explore the impact of the Industrial Revolution on society and how it shaped the modern era.

We will delve into the various aspects of this period and analyze its effects on different sectors such as economy, culture, and social structure. So let's dive into the world of the Industrial Revolution and discover its significance in shaping the society we know today. The Industrial Revolution was a period of great change and innovation that transformed the way people lived and worked. It began in Britain in the late 1700s and quickly spread to other parts of Europe and North America. This revolution was characterized by the development of new technologies, such as the steam engine and textile machinery, which drastically increased production and efficiency in various industries. One of the main impacts of the Industrial Revolution was the rise of factories and mass production.

With the introduction of machines, goods could now be produced at a much faster rate and with less manual labor. This led to an increase in urbanization as people moved from rural areas to cities in search of employment in these new factories. The rise of factories also brought about significant changes in social, economic, and political structures. The working class emerged as a new social class, with factory workers facing harsh working conditions and low wages. This led to the formation of labor unions and the rise of socialism as a response to the unequal distribution of wealth. Economically, the Industrial Revolution brought about a shift from an agrarian society to an industrial one.

This resulted in a significant increase in productivity and economic growth, leading to the accumulation of wealth for the upper class. However, this also widened the gap between the rich and the poor, creating a stark divide between the haves and have-nots. Politically, the Industrial Revolution also had a profound impact. As more people moved to cities, there was a need for better infrastructure and public services. This led to reforms in government policies and the emergence of new political ideologies such as liberalism and conservatism. In conclusion, the Industrial Revolution had a lasting impact on society, shaping the world we live in today.

The Rise of Factories and Mass Production

Urbanization and population growth, economic effects, political shifts, social changes.

The working class emerged as a new social class, and the gap between the rich and poor grew wider. In conclusion, the Industrial Revolution had a significant impact on society, from its economic and political effects to its social and cultural changes. It transformed the way people lived, worked, and interacted with one another, and its effects can still be seen in our modern world. By understanding the impact of this period in history, we can gain a deeper understanding of our global society today.

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