ipl-logo

Summary Of John Hollitz's Thinking Through The Past

504 Words3 Pages

This chapter of John Hollitz’s novel, Thinking Through the Past, features twelve primary sources that radically describe life during the industrialization era, and the effects that it bore on workers’ lives. Through the analyzation of these sources, it is evident that industrialization enslaved workers to dangerous working environments, extremely low wages, long work days, and lives with very little freedom. This lead to numerous strikes, multiple casualties, and the formation of labor unions. The extent of the harsh working conditions weighed heavy on white men, but that did not compare to the struggles that plagued colored men, immigrants, women, and even children. The working conditions of this time varied on the place of work and especially on race. For example, source two list the average income and expenses of multiple different families. The average income of the American Laborer was $360, the average income of an Irish Laborer was $343, and the average income of an Italian Laborer was $270. This shows that even though the three men worked the same hours at the same job, they were not paid the same amount due to their race. Even …show more content…

He owns the houses, the schoolhouses, the churches of God...The revenue he derives from these, the wages he pays out with one hand- the Pullman Palace Car Company, he takes back with the other- the Pullman Land Association.” This excerpt directly quotes the fourth source in this chapter. The aforementioned quote explains how the workers and residents of this town were forced to buy everything from the same man that was also their boss. Pullman pulled the strings and would often reduce wages only to increase store prices. He was a boss out only for himself. His plutocratic ways eventually lead to the formation of the American Railroad Union in

Show More
Related

Summary Of Showdown By Rob Kristofferson

956 Words | 4 Pages

There was an abundance of workers, and the items they were producing were being found in homes across the country. Industry was making a lot of money, but due to the number of able workers, these same companies believed that they did not need to treat them well. The workers were putting in ten to twelve hours a day, five and a half, or six days a week (p. 9). The working conditions

Read More

Big Business In The Gilded Age Dbq

1211 Words | 5 Pages

So he created the grand central station to control what comes in and out of the northeast. He became the richest man by the end of the civil war by investing in railroads. And drives out his competition leaving him the sole owner of railroads and what and how much product gets traded for. Document 1 states “The railroad president is a railroad king, whose whim is the law. He can fix the price of freights, and thus command the food and fuel supplies of the nation.

Read More

Analyze The Changes Of The Economy During The Jacksonian Era

520 Words | 3 Pages

The changes to the transportation system pushed economic growth as well as shifting many areas from an agrarian subsistence culture, which was “doomed by its own population dynamic” to a market economy (Sellers 17). The market expansion inspired new techniques and development in manufacturing techniques. While most applauded the modernization of the creation of goods, they caused a social dilemma for some. Reverend Timothy Flint worried about the “morals of the children growing up around these cotton mills about the spread of extravagance and luxury” (Feller 30). The factories “exploited efficiently the most vulnerable workers” that were created by the looming farming crisis (Sellers 28).

Read More

Analysis Of 'Self-Help In Hard Times'

757 Words | 4 Pages

In chapter 15, “Self-Help in Hard Times”, Zinn’s overarching point is that unity among workers was not simple to achieve, and that white supremacy was a powerful, deadly force after the war. To support and further discuss these concepts, Zinn points out how relations between the American Federation of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World were often tense, how city life often changed drastically during times of strike, and how immigration laws during the twenties began to favor Anglo-Saxons. One such way Zinn showcases these ideas is by describing how drastically life changed for cities when workers went on strike, hoping for an increase in their wages. As the strike continued on throughout February of 1919, Zinn recalls how all services, except for those that were consider essential to daily life, ceased.

Read More

Captain Of Industry Dbq Analysis

925 Words | 4 Pages

It would be harder to get from place to place if there was never the Transcontinental Railroad, which surely would have influenced the ideas of other methods of transportation, like cars and planes. One of the most important points from Document F quotes: “Had it not been for these captains of industry, the free world might have lost the First World War and most certainly have lost the second.” They changed and protected the U.S. and the right of freedom with their work, and that’s

Read More

Gilded Age Dbq

1701 Words | 7 Pages

He also conveys that companies should be helping support communities that they are near to. Gompers also insist on the right to organize and that workers deserve to be paid adequate wages in that law should be passed to help with workers compensation. The financial cloud of railroads left employees helpless in many ways. Document E by Andrew Carnegie called "Wealth" explains how some business leaders believed in charity but also saw themselves as Superior compared to the common human. This shows how Business Leaders were not very humble and not often remembered where they came from and how they were once in the same position as these people that they are treating so unfairly.

Read More

Dbq On The Gilded Age

1005 Words | 5 Pages

Dr. Stow expresses that “as a class, they [the laborers] are dwarfed physically.” Stow clarifies his statement by explaining that these physical and psychological ailments have come as a result of the lack of fresh air and intense heat of the mills of which the laborers work in. The failure of politicians to pass legislation to improve the welfare of workers unfortunately led to several other instances of abuse similar to the kinds expressed in the report. Subsequently, laborers began to unionize in order to advocate for more humane working conditions. These unions supported things such as an 8-hour work day, child labor protections, and higher wages.

Read More

Progressive Era Dbq

1349 Words | 6 Pages

Not only the meat packing industry, the overall factory environment in the early 1900s was depressing. Child labor was common. As Jame Adams observed in 1909, “thousands of the city youth will enter factory life at an early age as early as the state law will permit” (Doc. C). Implying her dissatisfaction toward the state action, she had pointed out one national issue for people to consider―child labor.

Read More

Monopolies During The Gilded Age

878 Words | 4 Pages

McNeill, a labor leader describes the railroad’s president’s control over the workers and how they often times leave the workers helpless (Document 1). Evidently, industrialist utilized wage exploitation to take advantage of the workers by demanding extensive mass production, giving them low wages and harsh working conditions. Consequently, this outraged the workers since the industrialist were benefitting from their hard work, which caused the increase in poverty. This also resulted in an increase of wealth gap between the rich and the poor, which contributed to the division of social class. When new immigrants came to America the industrialist took advantage of their necessity for money, and since most of them settled in urban cities, unfortunately, the job most available for them were factories.

Read More

Women's Rights Dbq Essay

886 Words | 4 Pages

Prior to the advent of labor unions, workers suffered under the oppressive treatment at the hands of those who employed them. At the dawn of the industrial revolution, factory workers faced long hours with few, if any, breaks, poor air quality, and no days off. Many workers were women, children, and newly-arrived immigrants who were subjected to low wages and, in some extreme cases, even sexual abuse. Young women, like those in the Lowell System, were under strict control by their employers who watched their every move. Once industrialization occurred more and more people moved from the country to the city in search of factory work; these too were left to the control of their employers.

Read More

How Did Industrialization Change American Society

677 Words | 3 Pages

These workers faced dangers everyday and received little pay. At the same time, many other people also had more money and leisure time. Henry George’s book, Progress and Poverty, talks about this divide. “ It was as though an immense wedge were being forced, not underneath society, but through society. Those who are above the point of separation are elevated, but those who are below are crushed down” (Document 3).

Read More

Gilded Age Industrialization

512 Words | 3 Pages

The life in the 19th-century for labor worker was from far easy. With all the wealth being generateing during the Gilded age very little of its wealth were given to the wokers. Even the best wages for a industrial worker were low, with long hours, working in awfully poor conditions. With safety rules and regulations being unexisted, it was hard to blame employers responsible. It was worse for women and children, who worked as hard or even harder than men, often time only revcieved only but a fraction of what a man earned.

Read More

Gilded Age Dbq

1124 Words | 5 Pages

Many immigrant girls and women worked at the factory in very unsafe conditions. The owners of the factories would overpack the floor and lock the doors so the girls could not leave in order to consolidate profits (Document E). The calamity that took place the half hour that it took for the factory to burn down would forever change the safety protocols for factories in America. The economic changes that took place due to the urban growth of America’s immigrant population during the Gilded Age was significant not only in the twentieth century but remains a very important part of daily life in America

Read More

Lennie In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

1046 Words | 5 Pages

Even

Read More

Motivations In Brave New World

1099 Words | 5 Pages

Even

Read More

More about Summary Of John Hollitz's Thinking Through The Past

Related Topics

Open Document