Advanced Placement United States History
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Chapter 17: Industrial America: Corporations and Conflicts (1877-1911) Notes
jungkook
Advanced Placement United States History
Period 3
The Rise of Big Business
Industrialization in Europe and America revolutionized the world economy
The immense scale of agriculture and manufacturing prompted a long era of deflation
Andrew Carnegie said that even though the industrialization increased the gap between the rich and the poor, it bettered everyone’s standard of living
Growth depended on America’s large and growing population, expansion into the West, and an integrated national marketplace
Innovators in Enterprise
The US became an industrial power by tapping North America’s vast natural resources, particularly in the West
Industries switched from water power to coal
Production and Sales
Swift invented the assembly line, where each wageworker repeated the same slaughter task and over and over
Swift also pioneered vertical integration, a model in which a company controlled all aspects of production from raw materials to finished goods
Standard Oil and the Rise of the Trusts
Rockefeller pioneered the horizontal integration strategy, which is the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. A company may do this via internal expansion, acquisition or merger.
Trust: a small, organized group of associates (the board of trustees) to hold stock form a group of combined firms, managing them as a single entity
The Corporate Workplace
Pre-Civil War, most boys had hoped to become farmers, small-business owners, or independent artisans
After the Civil War, more and more Americans (male and female) began working for someone else
White collars were the were corporate workers who held professional positions
Blue collars were the workers who labored with their hands
Managers and Salesmen
Middle managers directed the flow of goods, labor, and information throughout the enterprise
Drummers, or traveling salesmen, were a common sight; they introduced merchants to new products, offered incentives, and suggested sales displays
Women in the Corporate Office
In large corporations, secretarial work became a dead-end job, and so they started assigning it to women
New technologies provided additional opportunities for women
The rise of the telephone was notable because thousands of young women found work as telephone operators
â…“ worked in domestic service
â…“ in industry
â…“ in office work, teaching, nursing, or sales
Unskilled Labor and Discrimination
As manager deskilled production (more mass production work), the ranks of factory workers more heavily included women and children
Men often resented women’s presence in the factories, and male labor unions often worked to exclude women
Women vigorously defended their right to work
Employers in the North and West recruited newly arrived immigrants
Immigrants, East and West
In the new industrial order, immigrants made an ideal labor supply
They took the worst jobs at low pay, and during economic downturns tens of thousands returned to their home countries, reducing the shock of unemployment in the US
Many Native-born Americans viewed immigrants with hostility and feared that immigrants would take more coveted jobs and erode white men’s wages
Asian Americans and Exclusion
Chinese Exclusion Act: barred Chinese laborers from entering the United States
Wasn’t repealed until