Lesson 3: Industrialization
This lesson will look at the impact of the early Industrialization of America.
Introduction to the Process of Industrialization
The concept of industrialization is much more than just the railroads and factories that one thinks of when they hear the word. It is a process that sweeps up a society as a whole and changes it. In the new country of America the process of industrialization changed every aspect of society in some fashion. Industrialization changed life for men, women, children, immigrants, native people; you name them, they were changed by it.
At one time historians called the early process of industrialization in America the “Industrial Revolution”; Cowan states that it is not called this any longer. This is because it was not a revolution; it was a process that took a very long time to complete. This process, according to Cowan, occurred from 1790 up to as late as 1930.
There are three groups that play an important role in the process of industrialization. These are innovators such as Oliver Evans, Eli Whitney, and Samuel Slater; the government on all three levels- federal, state, and local; and inventors and the men that make the inventions work - the engineers and entrepreneurs. These three groups were collaborative. It was the way they worked together that brought about the process of industrialization.
This lesson is entitled industrialization, however the lessons that follow it will also deal with the process. This lesson will get us started. For more detail on what lies ahead think about reading pages 67 and 68 of Cowan’s text.
