19th Century Industrialization

Nineteenth Century Industrialization

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the United States experienced an urban revolution unparalleled in world history up to that point in time. As factories, mines, and mills sprouted out across the map, cities grew up around them. The late nineteenth century, declared an economist in 1889, was "not only the age of cities, but the age of great cities." Between 1860 and 1910, the urban population grew from 6 million to 44 million. The United States was rapidly losing its rural roots. By 1920, more than half of the population lived in urban areas. The rise of big cities during the nineteenth century created a distinctive urban culture. People from
A human society needs the active co-operation and productive energy of every person in it. A man who is present as a consumer, yet who does not contribute either by land, labor, or capital to the work of society, is a burden. So much for the pauper. About him no more need to be said. But he is not the "poor man." The "poor man" is an elastic term, under which any number of social fallacies may be hidden. (www.roads.Virginia.edu) This shows that it was necessary for the lower class to remain in the work field in order to spur economic growth. Cities and industry grew in direct result with immigrant workers taking over the grunt jobs. Their low wages for the amount of work they put in was fundamental in the growth of industry and big business. Capitalism was necessary to spark socialism. Capitalism was the catalyst for the incline in industry and business. Socialism grew because of capitalism. Upton
19th Century Industrialization 4.

Sinclair's The Jungle shows the evil of capitalism. The main point of the novel is to show a particular failure of capitalism, which is, in Sinclair's view, inhuman, destructive, unjust, brutal, and violent. The slow destruction of Jurgis's (the main character) immigrant family at the hands of a cruel and prejudiced economic and social system demonstrates the effect of capitalism on the working class as a whole. It shows that the immigrant