chapter 18
: Foundations of Growth
America ready to grow; systems built; knowledge drawn from abroad, especially Britain, and adapted locally (Massachusetts).
Britain’s Industrial Revolution provided ideas we borrowed to form an American factory system and industry.
America grows rapidly, developing its own powerful economic and industrial system.
The American Response and Growth
A new country with money, aggression, and determination; seeks to outpace other nations in industrial progress.
Technology and Exposition
: Electrical building constructed; lights showcased; symbol of new tech.
World’s Columbian Exposition featured General Electric and Westinghouse; introduction of alternating current and electric lighting.
Exposition highlighted architecture, invention, and design; served as a showcase for optimism about the industrial age.
Manifest destiny framed as applied to business, private life, social realms, philosophy, religion.
Book Structure of the Era
Section 1: Inventors of the age
Section 2: From invention to industrial growth
Section 3: Building industrial America on the backs of labor
Section 4: The new American consumer culture
The Columbus Exposition and Invention
The fair symbolized mirrored invention that drove economic growth and transformed American life; tied to a new wave of industrialization.
West, Expansion, and the Birth of Capitalism
West expansion boosts shipbuilding, mining, meat, railroads; private capital accumulates; workers pushed to the bottom.
Capitalism is born; the West helps it take root and expand.
Chapter 17–18: Key Figures and Industries
John D. Rockefeller — Standard Oil
Andrew Carnegie — Carnegie Steel
Alexander Graham Bell — patents the telephone
Thomas Edison — electric lamp
: Great Railroad Strike
: Homestead Strike
West industries: lumber, mining, meat, transportation; powerful tycoons emerge
Chapter 18: Working Class, Industrialization, and Society
Industrialization creates big business and a capitalist economy
Emergence of wealth concentration and social stratification: upper, middle, and lower classes (workers)
West expansion linked to urban growth and industrial development; labor–capital tensions increase
Outcomes and Reflections
What capitalism brought to America and what it cost; gains and losses; impact on daily life and national growth
The era ties West expansion to industrial, economic, and social change
Key Terms to Review
Columbian Exposition; General Electric; Westinghouse; Alternating Current (AC); Rockefeller; Carnegie; Bell; Edison; Standard Oil; Carnegie Steel; Homestead Strike; Great Railroad Strike; labor movement; capitalism; class stratification