CHAPTER
18
Revolutions of Industrialization
1750–1914

CHAPTER OVERVIEW
CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• To explore the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution
• To root Europe’s Industrial Revolution in a global context
• To examine the question of why industrialization first “took off ” in Great Britain
• To heighten student awareness of both the positive and the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution
• To examine some of the ways in which nineteenth-century industrial powers exerted an economic imperialism over their nonindustrialized neighbors
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Opening Vignette
A. Mahatma Gandhi criticized industrialization as economic exploitation.
1. few people have agreed with him
2. every kind of society has embraced at least the idea of industrialization since it started in Great Britain in the late eighteenth century
B. The Industrial Revolution was one of the most significant elements of Europe’s modern transformation.
1. initial industrialization period was 1750–1900
2. drew on the Scientific Revolution
3. utterly transformed European society
4. pushed Europe into a position of global dominance
5. was more fundamental than any breakthrough since the Agricultural Revolution
C. We don’t know where we are in the industrial era—at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end.
II. Explaining the Industrial Revolution
A. At the heart of the Industrial Revolution lay a great acceleration in the rate of technological innovation, leading to enormous increases in the output of goods and services.
1. use of new energy sources (steam engines, petroleum engines)
2. in Britain, output increased some fiftyfold in the period 1750–1900
3. based on a “culture of innovation”
4. before 1750/1800, the major Eurasian civilizations were about equal technologically
5. greatest breakthrough was the steam engine
a. soon spread from the textile industry to many other types of production
b. agriculture was transformed
6. spread from Britain to Western Europe, then to the United States, Russia, and Japan
B. Why Europe?
1. many scholars have debated why industrialization appeared first in Great Britain, and why it started in the late nineteenth century
2. that view has been challenged by:
a. the fact that other parts of the world have had times of great technological and scientific flourishing
b. the fact that Europe did not enjoy any overall economic advantage as late as 1750
c. the rapid spread of industrial techniques to much of the world in the past 250 years
3. contemporary historians tend to see the Industrial Revolution as a rather quick and unexpected eruption in the period 1750–1850
4. why it might have occurred in Europe
a. some patterns of European internal development favored innovation
b. European rulers had an unusual alliance with merchant classes
5. other societies developed market-based economies by the eighteenth century (e.g., Japan, India, and China)
a. but Europe was at the center of the most varied exchange network
b. contact with culturally different peoples encouraged change and innovation
c. the Americas provided silver, raw materials, and foods
C. Why Britain?
1. Britain was the most commercialized of Europe’s larger countries
a. small farmers had been pushed out (enclosure movement)
b. market production fueled by a number of agricultural innovations
c. guilds had largely disappeared
2. ready supply of industrial workers with few options
3. British aristocrats were interested in commerce
4. British commerce was worldwide
5. British political life encouraged commercialization and economic innovation
a. policy of religious toleration (established 1688) welcomed people with technical skills regardless of faith
b. British government imposed tariffs to protect its businessmen
c. it was easy to form companies and forbid workers’ unions
d. unified internal market, thanks to road and canal system
e. patent laws protected inventors’ interests
f. checks on royal authority gave more room for private enterprise
6. emphasis of the Scientific Revolution was different in Great Britain
a. on the continent: logic, deduction, mathematical reasoning
b. in Britain: observation and experiment, measurement, mechanical devices, practical applications
c. in Britain, artisan/craftsman inventors were in close contact with scientists and entrepreneurs
d. the British Royal Society (founded 1660) took the role of promoting “useful knowledge”
7. Britain had plenty of coal and iron ore, often conveniently located
8. Britain was not devastated by the Napoleonic wars
9. social change was possible without revolution
III. The First Industrial Society
A. There was a massive increase in output as industrialization took hold in Britain.

1. rapid development of railroad systems
2. much of the dramatic increase was in mining, manufacturing, and services
3. agriculture became less important by comparison (in 1891, agriculture generated only 8 percent of British national income)
4. vast transformation of daily life
a. it was a traumatic process for many
b. different people were affected in different ways
B. The British Aristocracy
1. landowning aristocrats had little material loss in the Industrial Revolution
2. but the aristocracy declined, because urban wealth became more important
a. many businessmen, manufacturers, and bankers were enriched
b. aristocrats had declining political clout
c. by 1900, businessmen led the major political parties
3. titled nobles retained great social prestige and personal wealth
a. many found an outlet in Britain’s colonial possessions
C. The Middle Classes
1. the middle classes had the most obvious gains from industrialization
2. upper middle class: some became extremely wealthy, bought into aristocratic life
3. middle class: large numbers of smaller businessmen and professionals
a. politically liberal
b. stood for thrift, hard work, rigid morals, and cleanliness
c. Samuel Smiles, Self-Help (1859): individuals are responsible for their own destiny
d. middle-class women were more frequently cast as homemakers, wives, and mothers
4. lower middle class: service sector workers (clerks, secretaries, etc.)

a. by 1900, they were around 20 percent of Britain’s population
b. employment opportunities for women as well as men
D. The Laboring Classes
1. in the nineteenth century, about 70 percent of Britons were workers
2. laboring classes suffered most/benefited least from industrialization
3. rapid urbanization
a. by 1851, a majority of Britain’s population was urban
b. by 1900, London was the largest city in the world (6 million)
4. horrible urban conditions
a. vast overcrowding
b. inadequate sanitation and water supplies
c. epidemics
d. few public services or open spaces
e. little contact between the rich and the poor
5. industrial factories offered a very different work environment
a. long hours, low wages, and child labor were typical for the poor
b. what was new was the routine and monotony of work, direct supervision, discipline
c. industrial work was insecure
d. many girls and young women worked
E. Social Protest among the Laboring Classes
1. “friendly societies,” especially of artisans, for self-help were common
2. other skilled artisans sometimes wrecked machinery and burned mills
3. some joined political movements, aimed to enfranchise working-class men
4. trade unions were legalized in 1824
a. growing numbers of factory workers joined them
b. fought for better wages and working conditions
c. at first, upper classes feared them

5. socialist ideas spread gradually
a. Karl Marx (1818–1883) laid out a full ideology of socialism
b. socialist ideas were attractive among more radical trade unionists and some middle-class intellectuals in the late nineteenth century
6. British working-class movement remained moderate
a. material conditions for workers improved in second half of the century
b. capitalists and impoverished working class didn’t polarize because of the large middle and lower middle class
c. workers bettered their standard of living
7. but immense inequalities remained
8. by 1900, Britain was in economic decline relative to newly industrialized states like Germany and the United States
IV. Variations on a Theme: Comparing Industrialization in the United States and Russia
A. The Industrial Revolution soon spread to continental Western Europe.
1. by 1900, it was established in the United States, Russia, and Japan
2. industrialization had broadly similar outcomes wherever it was established
a. aristocratic, artisanal, and peasant classes declined
b. middle-class women withdrew from paid labor altogether
c. establishment of trade unions and socialist movements
3. but the spread of industrialization was affected by the cultures of the lands where it was established, pace and timing of industrialization, nature of major industries, role of the state, political expression of social conflict, etc.
a. French industrialization was slower, perhaps less disruptive
b. Germany focused at first on heavy industry
4. variations are most apparent in the cases of the United States and Russia
B. The United States: Industrialization without Socialism
1. American industrialization began with New England textiles (1820s)
2. explosive growth after the Civil War
a. by 1914, the United States was the world’s leading industrial power
b. closely linked to European industrialization
3. the U.S. government played an important role through tax breaks, land grants to railroads, laws making formation of corporations easy, absence of overt regulation
4. pioneering of mass production techniques
5. creation of a “culture of consumption” through advertising, catalogs, and department stores
6. self-made industrialists became cultural heroes (Ford, Carnegie, Rockefeller)
7. serious social divisions rose
a. growing gap between rich and poor
b. constant labor of the working class
c. creation of vast slums
d. growing labor protest
e. Why didn’t socialism appeal to American workers?
f. “Populists” denounced corporate interests
g. “Progressives” were more successful, especially after 1900
h. socialism was labeled as fundamentally “un-American”
C. Russia: Industrialization and Revolution
1. Russia was an absolute monarchy, with the greatest state control of anywhere in the Western world
a. in 1900: no national parliament, no legal political parties, no nationwide elections
b. dominated by a titled nobility (many highly Westernized)
c. until 1861, most Russians were serfs
2. in Russia, the state, not society, usually initiated change
a. Peter the Great (r. 1689–1725) was an early example of “transformation from above”
b. Catherine the Great (r. 1762–1796) also worked to Europeanize Russian culture and intellectual life
c. the state directed freeing of the serfs in 1861
d. the state set out to improve Russia’s economic and industrial backwardness
3. Russian Industrial Revolution was launched by the 1890s
a. focused on railroads and heavy industry
b. substantial foreign investment
c. industry was concentrated in a few major cities
d. fewer but larger factories than was typical in Western Europe
4. growing middle class disliked Russia’s deep conservatism, sought a greater role in political life
a. but they were dependent on the state for contracts and jobs
b. also relied on the state to suppress worker radicalism
5. Russian working class (only about 5 percent of the population) rapidly radicalized
a. harsh conditions
b. no legal outlet for grievances
c. large-scale strikes
6. Marxist socialism appealed to some educated Russians, gave them hope for the future
a. founded the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (1898)
b. got involved in workers’ education, union organizing, and revolutionary action
7. major insurrection broke out in 1905, after defeat in war by Japan
a. in Moscow and St. Petersburg, workers went on strike, created their own representative councils (“soviets”)
b. peasant uprisings, student demonstrations
c. non-Russian nationalities revolted
d. military mutiny
e. brutally suppressed, but forced the tsar’s regime to make reforms
8. limited political reforms failed to pacify the radicals or bring stability
a. growing belief that only a revolution would help
b. World War I provided the revolutionary moment
9. Russian Revolution broke out in 1917
a. brought the most radical of the socialist groups to power—the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin)
b. only in Russia did industrialization lead to violent social revolution
V. The Industrial Revolution and Latin America in the Nineteenth Century
A. Beyond Europe and North America, only Japan underwent major industrialization in the nineteenth century.
1. elsewhere, only modest experiments in industry
2. did not transform societies
3. nonindustrialized societies still felt the impact of European and North American developments
B. After Independence in Latin America
1. the struggle for independence in Latin America took a long time and was very destructive
2. the four vice-royalties of Spanish America became eighteen separate countries
3. international wars hindered development of the new nations
a. Mexico lost vast territories to the United States (1846–1848)
b. Paraguay was devastated by war (1864–1870)

4. political life was highly unstable
a. conservatives tried to maintain the old status quo
b. liberals attacked the Church, sought some social reforms, preferred federalism to a centralized government system
c. often, military strongmen (caudillos) gained power
d. states ran through multiple constitutions
5. independence brought little fundamental change to social life
a. slavery was abolished (though not until late 1880s in Brazil and Cuba)
b. most legal distinctions between racial categories were abolished
c. but creole whites remained overwhelmingly in control of productive economic resources
d. small middle class allowed social mobility for a few
e. the vast majority were impoverished
C. Facing the World Economy
1. second half of the nineteenth century: greater stability, integration into world economy
2. rapid growth of Latin American exports to industrializing countries
a. exported food products and raw materials
b. imported textiles, machinery, tools, weapons, luxury goods
3. major investment of European and U.S. capital in Latin America
D. Becoming like Europe?
1. rapid population increase
2. rapid urbanization
3. actively sought European immigrants
4. few people benefited from the export boom
a. upper-class landowners did very well
b. middle class grew some
c. but over 90 percent of the population was still lower class
5. industrial workers made up a modest segment of the lower class
a. attempted unions and strikes
b. harshly repressed
6. most of the poor remained rural
7. only in Mexico did conditions provoke a nationwide revolution
a. overthrow of the dictator Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911)
b. major, bloody conflict (1910–1920)
c. huge peasant armies
d. transformed Mexico
8. the export boom did not cause a thorough Industrial Revolution
a. there was little internal market for manufactured goods
b. rich landowners and cattlemen had little incentive to invest in manufacturing
c. governments supported free trade, so cheaper and higher-quality foreign goods were available than could be made at home
d. instead, economic growth was dependent on Europe and North America
VI. Reflections: History and Horse Races
A. Historians are fascinated by historic “firsts.”
B. But a focus on “firsts” can be misleading.
1. most “first achievements” in history were not intentional
2. the Industrial Revolution was certainly an “unexpected outcome of converging circumstances”
C. Europeans have used their development of industrialization to claim an innate superiority.
1. it’s important to emphasize the unexpectedness of the Industrial Revolution
2. spread of industrialization around the world diminishes the importance of the “why Europe?” question
3. industrialization will increasingly be seen as a global process
LECTURE STRATEGIES
Lecture 1: Imagining the Industrial Revolution
It is often difficult for students to imagine the physical reality of the early Industrial Revolution, so this lecture strategy is intended to help students conceptualize and visualize the new world of machines. It is possible to approach this lecture strategy using images or literature, or a combination of the two. Its objectives are:
• to help students picture the course of the Industrial Revolution—its major inventions and how they were employed
• to encourage students to consider the physical and emotional costs and benefits of industrialization
A good place to start is with a literary figure who will probably be familiar to most students—Bob Cratchit, the lowly clerk in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (you might care to show a clip from one of the movie versions of the novel). Explore with students this depiction of a member of the lower middle class in the 1840s—the difficult conditions of his life, his utter dependence on a skinflint tyrant, and the novelty of jobs like Cratchit’s in the early Industrial Revolution. Go on to consider what had changed in British life by the 1840s, at the time Dickens wrote his novel. From there, you could take a variety of approaches, including the following.
Consider the physical presence of machines, a handy point at which to introduce students to important early industrial inventions and how they affected patterns of work. Some machines to include are:
• the Watt steam engine (How big was it? How loud was it? How hot was it?)
• Arkwright’s water frame
• Hargreaves’s spinning jenny
• the power loom
• the reverberatory furnace
• the railroad
Discuss working conditions, taking care to consider the context of the time (e.g., child labor was perfectly normal among the poor). Particular points to include are:
• how physically demanding different sorts of work were
• the danger of death or maiming
• whether wages were sufficient for a family to live decently
Help your students to imagine living conditions in an early industrial city, such as Manchester, England, dubbed “Cottonopolis” in the nineteenth century. Particular points to consider are:
• types of housing available to workers
• means of heating or cooling
• the availability of reasonably nutritious food in adequate quantities
• what the city might have smelled like
• the fears of epidemic disease
Consider other social classes, including such points as:
• how enviable Bob Cratchit’s position was compared to that of a factory worker
• the strains that attended life in the middle class
• the satisfactions of a new culture of consumption
Include literary, film, or photographic examples to emphasize your points (see the Further Reading section). It may be useful to refer to the chapter’s Visual Sources feature during your lecture.
Lecture 2: Socialism
The topic of this lecture is socialism—where it came from, its principles, where it flourished, and why it was feared. The lecture strategy’s objectives are:
• to help students understand that socialism is a phenomenon with a long history
• to explore the thought of Marx and Engels and their influence in world history
• to examine what it was that socialists wanted
• to investigate whether the fear and hatred that the upper classes and governments felt toward socialism was justified in the nineteenth century
Begin by reading a short excerpt from Plato’s Republic, in which he outlines the ideal society. Ask students what they think the source is (leave out any specific reference to ancient Greece that could give the game away). With any luck, somebody will think it is Marx’s Communist Manifesto. This can lead to a presentation on the early socialists. Some points to include are:
• a careful definition of socialism
• precursors of socialism (such as Plato, or Thomas More’s Utopia)
• the radicalizing effect of the Peterloo Massacre (1819)
• the Chartist movement
• the writings of intellectuals such as Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, and Louis Blanc
Go on from there to examine Karl Marx and his legacy. Some important points are:
• Marx’s biography
• his collaboration with Friedrich Engels
• his historical approach to the problem of industrialization
• The Communist Manifesto: what it says, why it says it, and what impact it had
In the remaining time, you could address additional points such as:
• what socialism had to offer women
• whether socialism had anything to offer peasants
• what means socialists advocated to realize their goals for society
• whether all socialists were violent
• whether Marx would have recognized the form of socialism that initiated the Russian Revolution of 1917
It may be useful to refer to the chapter’s Documents feature during your lecture.
Lecture 3: Economic imperialism
Americans are often indignant at the suggestion that we could be regarded as imperialists, yet this chapter presents a form of economic imperialism in Latin America in which the United States was deeply involved. The purpose of this lecture strategy is to examine U.S. relations with Latin America in the nineteenth century in greater detail, considering economic imperialism as a factor. For the sake of comparison, it is suggested that the lecturer weave in a discussion of the more overt economic imperialism that Great Britain exercised over India. The purposes of this lecture strategy are:
• to explore in greater detail the history of Latin America after independence
• to examine the relationship between Latin America and its big sister the United States in the nineteenth century
• to discuss the ways in which foreign economic manipulation could shape states that were only marginally industrialized
• to compare Britain’s economic sway over India to that of the United States over Latin America
Begin with a clip from the glorious 1982 film Gandhi, specifically the scene in which a desperate villager enlists Gandhi’s help after the British stop buying the products they had ordered the Indians to produce. This can proceed naturally to a wider presentation of industrial nations’ unrelenting quest for raw materials and for markets for their finished products. From there, tell the tale of industrial nations’ involvement in Latin America and India. Some issues to consider are:
• how local elites were made to participate in the system in the two regions
• the type of foreign involvement (investment, direct ownership, etc.)
• how each region increased its exports to satisfy foreign need
• internal movements that resisted the process
• the effects on Latin America and India
• the role of warfare in both cases
THINGS TO DO IN THE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics
1. Contextualization (large or small group). “Jane Austen’s England meets the Industrial Revolution.” Show the class a clip from a Jane Austen movie such as Emma, Pride and Prejudice, or Sense and Sensibility. Then divide the class into groups and ask them to discuss what relationship Jane Austen’s world might have to the early Industrial Revolution.
2. Comparison (large or small group). “Industrial Revolution and global divide.” Direct your students’ attention to the Snapshot on page 847 entitled “The Industrial Revolution and the Global Divide.” Encourage them to make a list of the patterns they see in the table and to discuss the implications of those patterns.
3. Misconception/Difficult Topic (large or small group). “Europe must be special, since it came up with the Industrial Revolution.” The main thrust of this chapter is to argue against this common misconception. Ask students to take a few minutes to reread the Reflections section at the end of the chapter. Then ask them to discuss whether they are convinced by the author’s argument that the Industrial Revolution’s development in Great Britain in the decades around 1800 was more an accident than anything else.
Classroom Activities
1. Analysis exercise (large or small group). “Life in an industrial city, ca. 1850.” We tend to take the organization of urban space for granted—on payment of a small fee, our garbage is collected, water miraculously appears in our houses, we’re hooked up to an electrical system, and mail even turns up on our doorsteps. The purpose of this exercise is to help students consider how hard it really is to make a modern city functional, thus encouraging them to consider how intractable some of the problems of industrialization really were. This exercise has several parts:
• Encourage the class as a whole to come up with several end results that they consider necessary to reasonably healthy and bearable life in a city of 100,000 people (such as a municipal water system that pumps clean water to somewhere reasonably close to most people’s homes).
• Divide the class into groups, assigning one end result to each group.
• Ask the students in each group to discuss and make a list of the conditions that would have to be satisfied to reach their end result (e.g., in the case of water supply, the need to dig wells or divert other water sources, some sort of water treatment facility, miles and miles of pipes laid, the creation of pumping stations, etc.).
• Bring the groups back together to discuss their findings.
2. Clicker question. Do you find socialism appealing?
3. Role-playing exercise (small group). “Where to invest?” The members of the class are the board of directors of a major bank based in London; the year is 1880. They wish to invest a large amount of capital in heavy industry and are hearing reports from their agents to help them decide the best place for their capital investment. Choose three groups of students to make the case for Mexico, Russia, or Great Britain itself as the best place to invest. After the groups have made their arguments, let the board of directors vote. Finish the class by discussing what really was the most likely to happen historically to each of the three investment possibilities, and why.
KEY TERMS
bourgeoisie: Term that Karl Marx used to describe the owners of industrial capital; originally meant “townspeople.” (pron. boor-zwah-ZEE)
British Royal Society: Association of scientists established in England in 1660 that was dedicated to the promotion of “useful knowledge.”
Caste War of Yucatán: Long revolutionary struggle (1847–1901) of the Maya people of Mexico against European and mestizo intruders.
caudillo: A military strongman who seized control of a government in nineteenth-century Latin America. (pron. kow-DEE-yohs)
Crimean War: Major international conflict (1854–1856) in which British and French forces defeated Russia; the defeat prompted reforms within Russia.
dependent development: Term used to describe Latin America’s economic growth in the nineteenth century, which was largely financed by foreign capital and dependent on European and North American prosperity and decisions.
Díaz, Porfirio: Mexican dictator from 1876 to 1911 who was eventually overthrown in a long and bloody revolution. (pron. por-FEAR-ee-oh DEE-ahz)
Duma, the: The elected representative assembly grudgingly created in Russia by Tsar Nicholas II in response to the 1905 revolution. (pron. DOO-mah)
Indian cotton textiles: For much of the eighteenth century, well-made and inexpensive cotton textiles from India flooded Western markets; the competition stimulated the British textile industry to industrialize, which led to the eventual destruction of the Indian textile market both in Europe and in India.
Labour Party: British working-class political party established in the 1890s and dedicated to reforms and a peaceful transition to socialism, in time providing a viable alternative to the revolutionary emphasis of Marxism.
Latin American export boom: Large-scale increase in Latin American exports (mostly raw materials and foodstuffs) to industrializing countries in the second half of the nineteenth century, made possible by major improvements in shipping; the boom mostly benefited the upper and middle classes.
Lenin: Pen name of Russian Bolshevik Vladimir Ulyanov (1870–1924), who was the main leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917. (pron. vlad-EE-mir ool-YAHN-off )
lower middle class: Social stratum that developed in Britain in the nineteenth century and that consisted of people employed in the service sector as clerks, salespeople, secretaries, police officers, and the like; by 1900, this group comprised about 20 percent of Britain’s population.

Marx, Karl: The most influential proponent of socialism, Marx (1818–1883) was a German expatriate in England who advocated working-class revolution as the key to creating an ideal communist future.
Mexican Revolution: Long and bloody war (1911–1920) in which Mexican reformers from the middle class joined with workers and peasants to overthrow the dictator Porfirio Díaz and create a new, much more democratic political order.
middle-class values: Belief system typical of the middle class that developed in Britain in the nineteenth century; it emphasized thrift, hard work, rigid moral behavior, cleanliness, and “respectability.”
Model T: The first automobile affordable enough for a mass market; produced by American industrialist Henry Ford.
Owens, Robert: Socialist thinker and wealthy mill owner (1771–1858) who created an ideal industrial community at New Lanark, Scotland.
Peter the Great: Tsar of Russia (r. 1689–1725) who attempted a massive reform of Russian society in an effort to catch up with the states of Western Europe.
populism: Late-nineteenth-century American political movement that denounced corporate interests of all kinds.
progressivism: American political movement in the period around 1900 that advocated reform measures to correct the ills of industrialization.
proletariat: Term that Karl Marx used to describe the industrial working class; originally used in ancient Rome to describe the poorest part of the urban population. (pron. proh-li-TARE-ee-at)
Russian Revolution of 1905: Spontaneous rebellion that erupted in Russia after the country’s defeat at the hands of Japan in 1905; the revolution was suppressed, but it forced the government to make substantial reforms.
socialism in the United States: Fairly minor political movement in the United States, at its height in 1912 gaining 6 percent of the vote for its presidential candidate.
steam engine: Mechanical device in which the steam from heated water builds up pressure to drive a piston, rather than relying on human or animal muscle power; the introduction of the steam engine allowed a hitherto unimagined increase in productivity and made the Industrial Revolution possible.

CHAPTER QUESTIONS
Following are answer guidelines for the Big Picture questions and Margin Review questions that appear in the textbook chapter, and answer guidelines for the chapter’s two Map Activity questions located in the Online Study Guide at bedfordstmartins.com/ strayer. For your convenience, the questions and answer guidelines are also available in the Computerized Test Bank.
Big Picture Questions
1. What was revolutionary about the Industrial Revolution?
• Not since the Agricultural Revolution had human ways of life been so fundamentally altered.
• The Industrial Revolution created new classes of people in society.
• It created new work patterns.
• It enormously increased the output of goods and services because of a wholly unprecedented jump in the capacities of human societies to produce wealth.
• It was underpinned by a culture of innovation, a widespread and almost obsessive belief that things could be improved endlessly.
2. What was common to the process of industrialization everywhere, and in what ways did that process vary from place to place?
• In the process of industrialization everywhere, new technologies and sources of energy generated vast increases in production, and unprecedented urbanization took place.
• Class structures changed as aristocrats, artisans, and peasants declined as classes, while the middle classes and a factory-working class grew in numbers and social prominence.
• Middle-class women generally withdrew from paid labor altogether, while working-class women sought to do so after marriage.
• Working women usually received lower wages than their male counterparts, had difficulty joining unions, and were subject to charges that they were taking jobs from men.
• Working-class frustration and anger gave rise to trade unions and socialist movements.

• The pace and timing of the Industrial Revolution varied by country. Other variables include the size and shape of major industries, the role of the state, the political expression of social conflict, and the relative influence of Marxism.
3. What did humankind gain from the Industrial Revolution, and what did it lose?
• Among the gains were an enormous increase in the output of goods and services because of a wholly unprecedented jump in the capacities of human societies to produce wealth. Other gains included unprecedented technological innovation; new sources of power; and new employment opportunities for participants.
• The losses included the destruction of some older ways of life; the demise of some older methods of production; miserable working and living conditions for many in the laboring classes; new and sometimes bitter social- and class-based conflicts; and environmental degradation.
4. In what ways might the Industrial Revolution be understood as a global rather than simply a European phenomenon?
• The Industrial Revolution rapidly spread beyond the confines of Europe and was easily adopted across cultures.
• Europe’s initial industrialization was influenced by its new position as a hub of the most extensive network of exchange in the world, by its extraction of wealth from the Americas, and by its dominance of the growing market for goods in the Americas.
• Even areas that did not industrialize were affected by the Industrial Revolution, such as Latin America, where the economy was defined by exports of raw materials to supply the factories and the workforces of industrial countries in Europe and the United States.
Margin Review Questions
Q. In what respects did the roots of the Industrial Revolution lie within Europe? In what ways did that transformation have global roots?
• The roots of the Industrial Revolution lay within Europe because Europe’s political system, which was composed of many small and highly competitive states, favored innovation.

• Also, the relative newness of European states and their monarchs’ desperate need for revenue in the absence of an effective tax-collecting bureaucracy pushed European royals into an unusual alliance with their merchant classes, resulting in an unusual degree of freedom from state control and a higher social status for merchants than in more established civilizations.
• Globally, Europe after 1500 became the hub of the largest and most varied network of exchange in the world, which generated extensive change and innovation and stimulated European commerce.
• The conquest of the Americas allowed Europeans to draw disproportionately on world resources and provided a growing market for European machine-produced goods.
Q. What was distinctive about Britain that may help to explain its status as the breakthrough point of the Industrial Revolution?
• Britain was the most highly commercialized of Europe’s larger countries.
• Britain had a rapidly growing population that provided a ready supply of industrial workers with few alternatives available to them.
• British aristocrats, unlike their counterparts elsewhere in Europe, had long been interested in commerce. That commerce extended around the world, its large merchant fleet protected by the Royal Navy.
• British political life promoted commercialization and economic innovation in part through a policy of religious toleration, which removed barriers against religious dissenters with technical skills.
• British government favored men of business with tariffs, laws that made it easy to form companies and to forbid workers’ unions, infrastructure investment, and patent laws, while checks on royal authority provided a freer arena for private enterprise.
• Europe’s Scientific Revolution also took a distinctive form in Great Britain in ways that fostered technological innovation, focusing on observation and experiment, precise measurements, mechanical devices, and practical commercial applications rather than logic, deduction, and mathematical reasoning.
• Britain possessed a ready supply of coal and iron ore, often located close to each other and within easy reach of major industrial centers.

• Britain’s island location protected it from the kind of invasions that so many continental European states experienced during the era of the French Revolution.
• Britain’s relatively fluid society allowed for adjustments in the face of social changes without widespread revolution.
Q. How did the Industrial Revolution transform British society?
• While landowning aristocrats suffered little in material terms, they declined as a class as elite urban groups grew in wealth and ultimately eclipsed the landowning aristocracy as a political force in the country. Titled nobles retained their social status and found opportunities in the empire.
• The upper middle class, composed of extremely wealthy factory and mine owners, bankers, and merchants, benefited most from the Industrial Revolution, and many readily assimilated into aristocratic life at the top of British society.
• Smaller businessmen, doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, journalists, scientists, and other professionals became more prominent as a social group and developed their own values and outlooks that emphasized ideas of thrift and hard work, a rigid morality, and cleanliness. The central value of the culture was “respectability,” a term that combines notions of social status and virtuous behavior.
• As Britain’s industrial economy matured, it gave rise to a sizeable “lower middle class”—people employed in the growing service sector as clerks, salespeople, bank tellers, hotel staff, secretaries, telephone operators, police officers, and the like. This group distinguished itself from the working class because they did not undertake manual labor.
• The laboring classes lived in new, overcrowded, and poorly serviced urban environments; they labored in industrial factories where new and monotonous work, performed under constant supervision designed to enforce work discipline, replaced the more varied drudgery of earlier periods. Ultimately, members of the laboring classes developed new forms of sociability, including “friendly societies” that provided some insurance against sickness, a decent funeral, and an opportunity for social life in an otherwise bleak environment. Over time, laboring classes also sought greater political participation, organized after 1824 into trade unions to improve their conditions, and developed socialist ideas that challenged the assumptions of capitalist society.
• Artisans and those who labored in agriculture declined in prominence.
Q. How did Britain’s middle classes change during the nineteenth century?
• Middle-class society was composed of political liberals who favored constitutional government, private property, free trade, and social reform within limits.
• Ideas of thrift and hard work, a rigid morality, and cleanliness characterized middle-class culture.
• The central value of the culture was “respectability,” a term that combines notions of social status and virtuous behavior.
• Women were cast as homemakers, wives, and mothers and charged with creating an emotional haven for their men. They were also the moral center of family life and the educators of respectability, as well as the managers of consumption in a setting in which shopping became a central activity. An “ideology of domesticity” defined the home and charitable activities as the proper sphere for women.
• A sizeable lower middle class took shape that included people employed as clerks, salespeople, bank tellers, secretaries, police officers, and the like. They distinguished themselves from the laboring classes by their work in the growing service sector, which did not require manual labor.
Q. How did Karl Marx understand the Industrial Revolution? In what ways did his ideas have an impact in the industrializing world of the nineteenth century?
• Marx saw the Industrial Revolution as the story of class struggle between the oppressor (the bourgeoisie, or the owners of industrial capital) and the oppressed (the proletariat, or the industrial working class).
• For Marx, the Industrial Revolution bore great promise as a phase in human history, for it made humankind far more productive, thus bringing the end of poverty in sight.
• However, according to Marx, capitalist societies could never eliminate poverty, because private property, competition, and class hostility prevented those societies from distributing the abundance of industrial economies to the workers whose labor had created that abundance.
• Marx predicted the eventual collapse of capitalism amid a working-class revolution as society polarized into rich and poor. After that revolution, Marx looked forward to a communist future in which the great productive potential of industrial technology would be placed in the service of the entire community.
• In terms of its impact in the industrializing world of the nineteenth century, Marx’s ideas were echoed in the later decades of the nineteenth century among more radical trade unionists and some middle-class intellectuals in Britain, and even more so in a rapidly industrializing Germany.
• But the British working-class movement by then was not overtly revolutionary, and when the working-class political party known as the Labour Party was established in the 1890s, it advocated a reformist program and a peaceful democratic transition to socialism, largely rejecting the
class struggle and revolutionary emphasis of Marxism.
Q. What were the differences between industrialization in the United States and that in Russia?
• Industrialization in the United States took place in one of the Western world’s most exuberant democracies, while Russia’s took place in the last outpost of absolute monarchy, in which the state exercised far greater control over individuals and society than anywhere in the Western world.
• In the United States, social and economic change bubbled up from society as free farmers, workers, and businessmen sought new opportunities and operated in a political system that gave them varying degrees of expression. In autocratic Russia, change was far more often initiated by the state itself, in its continuing efforts to catch up with the more powerful and innovative states of Europe.
• In the United States, working-class consciousness among factory laborers did not develop as quickly and did not become as radical, in part because workers were treated better and had more outlets for grievances in the United States than in Russia.
• Unlike industrialization in the United States, Russian industrialization was associated with a violent social revolution through which a socialist political party, inspired by the teachings of Karl Marx, was able to seize power.
Q. Why did Marxist socialism not take root in the United States?
• A number of factors underlie the failure of Marxist socialism to take root in the United States, including the relative conservatism of major American union organizations.
• The immense religious, ethnic, and racial divisions of American society undermined the class solidarity of American workers and made it far more difficult to sustain class-oriented political parties and a socialist labor movement.
• The country’s remarkable economic growth generated on average a higher standard of living for American workers than their European counterparts experienced.
• There was a higher level of home ownership among U.S. workers.
• By 1910, a particularly large group of white-collar workers in sales, services, and offices outnumbered factory laborers.
Q. What factors contributed to the making of a revolutionary situation in Russia by the beginning of the twentieth century?
• Rapid state-directed industrialization concentrated in a few major cities led to explosive social outcomes, including the emergence of a modern and educated middle class of businessmen and professionals, many of whom objected strongly to the deep conservatism of tsarist Russia and sought a greater role in political life.
• Russian factory workers quickly developed an unusually radical class consciousness, based on harsh conditions and the absence of any legal outlet for their grievances.
• A small but growing number of educated Russians found in Marxist socialism a way of understanding the changes they witnessed daily and hope for the future in a revolutionary upheaval of workers.
• The tsar’s reforms after the failed 1905 revolution did not tame working-class radicalism or bring social stability to Russia.
• Revolutionary groups published pamphlets and newspapers, organized trade unions, and spread their messages among workers and peasants. Particularly in the cities, these revolutionary parties had an impact in that they provided the language through which workers could express their grievances, created links among workers from different factories, and furnished leaders able to act when the revolutionary moment arrived.
• World War I caused enormous hardships that, when coupled with the immense social tensions of industrialization within a still autocratic political system, sparked the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Q. In what ways and with what impact was Latin America linked to the global economy of the nineteenth century?
• Latin America exported food products and raw materials to industrializing nations, increasing exports by a factor of ten in the sixty years or so after 1850.
• In return for these exports, Latin America imported the textiles, machinery, tools, weapons, and luxury goods of Europe and the United States.
• Both Europeans and Americans invested in Latin America, buying up food and raw material-producing assets and building railroads, largely to funnel Latin American products to the coast for export.
• Upper-class landowners benefited from the trade as exports flourished and the value of their land soared, while middle-class urban dwellers also grew in number and prosperity.
• But the vast majority of the population lived in rural areas, where they suffered the most and benefited the least from exports to the global economy; many lower-class farmers were pushed off their land, ending up either in remote and poor areas or working as dependent laborers for poor wages on the plantations of the wealthy.
• In Mexico, inequalities exacerbated by the global economy sparked a nationwide revolution in which middle-class reformers, workers, and peasants overthrew the government and instituted some reforms that benefited the lower classes.
• Participation in the global economy did not jump-start a thorough Industrial Revolution anywhere in Latin America.
• The Latin American economy became dependent upon Europe and America, with its development dependent on investment from and access to the economies of Europe and the United States.
Q. Did Latin America follow or diverge from the historical path of Europe during the nineteenth century?
• The population of Latin America increased rapidly, as did urbanization, similar to what was occurring in Europe.
• Many Europeans immigrated to Latin America.
• A middle class formed, although it was much smaller than that of Europe.
• However, Latin America diverged from the historical path of Europe in certain ways; central to this divergence was the lack of a thorough Industrial Revolution anywhere in Latin America and the development instead of an economy dependent on financial capital from and exports to the industrial economies of Europe.

Map Activity 1
Map 18.1: The Early Phase of Europe’s Industrial Revolution
Reading the Map: What is lacking in France’s coal and iron areas in comparison to Britain’s coal and iron areas?
Model Answer:
• The iron ore and coal deposits in Britain have numerous railroad lines intersecting them and connecting them to other industrial areas and cities and coasts; the iron ore and coal deposits in France mostly have few railroad lines connecting them to anywhere else.
Connections: What is the geographical relationship of the industrial areas on the map to deposits of coal and iron ore? What does the relationship tell us about the necessity of having large natural resources in a country?
Model Answer:
• Some of the industrial areas are near, but not in the same location, as coal and iron ore deposits, such as Lyon and Saxony, and some are quite far away from any coal or iron ore deposits, such Paris, Berlin, or Milan. Factories were not always built where the resources were, but for other reasons, such as where the workforce or investment capital was.
Map Activity 2
Map 18.3: Latin America and the World, 1825–1935
Reading the Map: Where did the United States repeatedly intervene? What kinds of raw materials were most heavily produced in these areas, and how much total foreign investment (approximately) was in these areas?
Model Answer:
• The United States intervened in Central America and the Caribbean islands. The predominant exports were coffee, sugar, bananas, and beef. A total of $2.1 billion was invested in these areas.
Connections: Which two South American countries absorbed the majority of European settlers? How much foreign investment did they receive, total, and relative to investment in other South American lands? What might explain the connection?

Model Answer:
• Brazil and Argentina absorbed the majority of European settlers. Argentina received $4 billion in foreign investment, Brazil $1.9 billion. European settlers were attracted by the opportunities created by the export boom, and had business connections in Europe that helped spur investment and exports there.
USING THE DOCUMENTS AND VISUAL SOURCES FEATURES
Following are answer guidelines for the headnote questions and Using the Evidence questions that appear in the Documents and Visual Sources features located at the end of the textbook chapter. Classroom Discussion and Classroom Activity suggestions are also provided to help integrate the document and visual source essays into the classroom.
Documents Headnote Questions
Document 18.1: Socialism According to Marx
Q. How did Marx and Engels understand the motor of change in human history? How do they view the role of class?
• Marx and Engels understood the motor of change to be one of class struggle between oppressor and oppressed.
• They believed that class was central to human history; in each age the struggle between oppressor and oppressed classes defined society and ultimately provided the motor for systemic change.
Q. What are Marx and Engels’s criticisms of the existing social system? What do they see as its major achievements?
• Marx and Engels criticized the existing social system for reducing all workers into commodities; reducing the family into a mere money relation; removing the skill from the work of the proletariat; and making the work of the proletariat monotonous. The existing social system resulted in the decline of the lower strata of the middle class, and in the bourgeoisie seizing control of government for its own purposes.
• However, Marx and Engels believed that the social system had been the first to show what man’s activity can bring about, surpassing even the greatest accomplishments of the past. The bourgeoisie system improved industrial production and communications; drew all, “even the most barbarian, nations into civilization” (p. 858); “rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life” by creating cities (p. 858); and “during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together” (p. 858).
Q. Why do Marx and Engels believe that the system is doomed?
• They believe that periodic crises of overproduction weaken the system. Also, the system caused the formation of modern working-class proletariats who would ultimately overthrow the bourgeoisie in the course of the natural class conflict between the two.
Q. How does the industrial proletariat differ from the lower class of the preindustrial era? What role do Marx and Engels foresee for the proletariat?
• In the preindustrial world, exploitation was veiled by religious and political illusions of ties between common men and natural superiors.
• The industrial era destroyed these ties and substituted “naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation” of proletariats by industrial capitalists (p. 857).
• The proletariats were another commodity created by the bourgeois system, but in the future the proletariats will organize and wrest political supremacy from the bourgeoisie.
Q. Which of Marx and Engels’s descriptions and predictions ring true even now? In what respects was their analysis disproved by later developments?
Possible answers:
• Many of Marx’s and Engels’s predictions still ring true. For example, the industrial revolution has both revolutionized the productivity of modern economies and brought much of the world into a single economic system.
• The new system is prone to crises of overproduction.
• Labor has to a certain extent become a commodity
• In some places a communist system was instituted following a revolution.
• There are tensions between proletariats and bourgeoisie in the system.
• The monotony and the discipline of the factory system as described by Marx does exists in some industries.
• However, many of the most industrialized nations in the world have not experienced proletariat revolutions or instituted communist systems.
• In those nations that did experience communist revolutions, the system was not able to operate in the manner conceived by Marx.
• What Marx describes as the lower middle class have not disappeared.
• The family remains more than merely an economic unit.
Q. How do Marx and Engels describe the socialist society that will follow the collapse of the capitalist system? Why do they believe that only a revolution, “the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions,” will enable the creation of a socialist society?
• The socialist society will centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state and eliminate all class distinctions. Public power will lose its political character as it will no longer be used to oppress one group to the benefit of another. It will create a system where the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.
• Marx and Engels foresaw only revolution achieving a socialist society because they believed that class struggle was the primary motor of historical change. The very basis of the capitalist bourgeois system in the accumulation of private property makes it impossible for the two systems to co-exist, and it is based on the exploitation of proletariats, so there is no way to modify the system to diffuse class conflict or satisfy the needs of the proletariat.
Document 18.2: Socialism without Revolution
Q. In what ways and for what reasons was Bernstein critical of Marx and Engels’s analysis of capitalism?
• Bernstein criticizes Marx and Engels because the number of large capitalists in society was growing and the middle classes persisted.
• The concentration of production in industries was not being accomplished in all its departments with equal thoroughness and at an equal rate.
• Capitalist privileges were giving way to democratic organizations, allowing the working classes to make important gains that limited the exploitative tendencies of capital.
• With the growth of democratic systems the need and potential opportunities of revolution diminish.
Q. Why do you think he refers so often to Engels?
Possible answers:
• Bernstein is pointing out that a close collaborator of Marx also recognized the changing situation, and that Engels recognized the potential for an alternative to revolution within the existing political system.
Q. What strategy does Bernstein recommend for the German Social Democratic Party?
• “To organize the working classes politically and develop them as a democracy and to fight for all reforms in the State which are adapted to raise the working classes and transform the State in the direction of democracy” (p. 861).
Q. What does he mean by saying that “the movement means everything to me and…‘the final aim of socialism’ is nothing”?
Possible answers:
• Bernstein is saying that the practical accomplishments of better living conditions for proletariats and the dominance of the current democratic political system by the working class are more important to Bernstein than the achievement of a proletariat revolution and the establishment of a society without private property.
• He also believes that the conquest of political power and the seizure of the property of capitalists are not ends in and of themselves, and that the real purpose of the socialist movement is to accomplish certain aims in improving the economic lives of the working class and in securing the working class’ influence on the existing political system.
Q. Why would some of Marx’s followers have considered Bernstein a virtual traitor to the socialist cause?
Possible answers:
• Bernstein’s ideas reject several basic premises of Marxist theory, including the idea that class struggle resulting in revolution is the primary motor for historical change; that only through the elimination of private capital can the working classes be liberated; and that the current system of government, however democratic, at its core is an instrument of repression that benefited the bourgeois class.
Document 18.3: Socialism and Women
Q. How would you describe Zetkin’s view of the relationship between socialism and feminism? Which one has priority in her thinking?
Possible answers:
• Zetkin sees the two struggles as intimately related. Successful feminist efforts to secure suffrage rights, for instance, strengthened the socialist movement. Similarly, socialist successes were critical for feminist goals.
• Zetkin prioritizes socialist goals because she believes that they will make the attainment of feminist advances easier. Evidence of her priority can be found in her dismissal of the bourgeois feminist movement because “class antagonisms are much more powerful, effective, and decisive than the social antagonisms between the sexes” (p. 862); and in her statement that the “Socialist women’s movement in Germany...strives to help change the world by awakening the consciousness and the will of working-class women to join in performing the most Titanic deed that history will know: the emancipation of labor by the laboring class themselves” (p. 863).
Q. Why is she so insistent that the Social Democratic Party of Germany address the concerns of women? How precisely did it do so?
Possible answers:
• Zetkin insists that women’s concerns are addressed because women are important participants in the socialist movement, and their organizations provide important support to the wider movement. The goals of both movements are entwined.
• The Social Democratic Party embraced women members; it established lecture and study circles and held public meetings where the concerns of working-class women were addressed. Its women’s office worked with the party’s executives to engage women in the political process.
Q. Why does she believe that women’s issues will be better served within a socialist framework than in a bourgeois women’s rights movement?
• Zetkin believes the social fate of women is intimately linked to the general evolution of society, the most important force of which is the evolution of labor and economic life.
• She states that “the integral human emancipation of all women depends in consequence on the social emancipation of labor” (p. 862).
• She believes the alternative of organizing women of all classes into a politically neutral movement is flawed because “class antagonisms are much more powerful, effective and decisive than social antagonisms between the sexes” (p. 862).
Q. How might critics—both feminist and socialist—argue with Zetkin?
Possible answers:
• A feminist critic might argue that Zetkin is deluding herself if she believes that a socialist victory will immediately redress the social antagonisms between the sexes rooted in the patriarchal culture. Also, by prioritizing socialism Zetkin is fragmenting and therefore weakening the feminist movement by excluding bourgeois women.
• A socialist critic might argue that Zetkin’s focus on women’s issues distracts the movement from its political and economic goals. Her claims about importance of women in the movement are overstated, especially considering their lack of voting rights.
Document 18.4: Socialism in Song
Q. What evidence of class consciousness is apparent in the song? What particular grievances are expressed in it?
Possible answers:
• Class consciousness can be seen in the opening stanza, “We have been nought, we shall be all” (p. 863), and in the final verse, “The union we of all who work.”
• The chorus refers to a international working class, while “the workers” is frequently used in the song to denote a working class.
• Grievances include the demand in verse 2 that the thief disgorge his booty.
• Verse 3 asserts that the laws oppress workers, that wage slavery drains the workers’ blood, that the rich have no obligations, and that the profits of the workers are collected in the coffers of a few.
Q. How does “The Internationale” portray the struggle and the future?
Possible answers:
• The song presents the struggle as one of workers uniting and rising up against inequality and exploitation.
• The final two verses depict a future where the workers seize power, rule collectively, and enjoy the fruits of their labor while the exploiters of the past disappear from the scene.
Q. What evidence of Marxist thinking can you find in its lyrics?
Possible answers:
• Marx’s idea that only revolutionary conflict can secure change and that the Communist revolution will be the final revolution that eliminates class altogether is implied in the chorus, which opens with “Tis the final conflict” (p. 863).
• Ideas on the inequalities of the bourgeois system are well represented.
• Ideas on sovereignty being held by all collectively is addressed in several places, as in the chorus which states “The international working class/ shall be the human race” (p. 863).
• The ideal of an economy without exploitation is presented, especially in the final two verses.
Q. How does this song, intended for a mass audience, differ from the more political and intellectual documents above?
Possible answers:
• It is written from the perspective of the worker.
• It speaks more to unity and liberation than the struggle to attain it.
• It provides less detail as to how unity among workers will bring radical social change.
Document 18.5: Lenin and Russian Socialism
Q. What were Lenin’s objections to economism?
• Lenin believed that all that such movements were able to accomplish were to strive for better working conditions from employers and the government.
• He felt that these goals led to larger memberships and a more complex and extensive political struggle to achieve change.
• Because of these goals, economists could never achieve the true revolutionary changes to society that Social Democrats seek.
Q. What kind of party organization did he favor?
• Lenin favored an organization with a stable group of dedicated leaders.
• It must have an inner core of professional revolutionaries and wider support of the masses, who form the basis of the movement.
• The inner core of professional revolutionaries should be drawn from a socialist intelligentsia.
• This core must be restricted in number in order to operate in a hostile political environment.
Q. Why did Lenin believe that workers were unlikely to come to a revolutionary consciousness on their own? What was necessary to move them in that direction?
• Workers were unlikely to come to a revolutionary consciousness because they focus on short-term goals of improving working conditions by working within the current political system.
• Movement toward a more revolutionary direction required a core of trained professional revolutionaries to foment revolution; their actions, while beyond the scope of other worker’s movements, would be supported by the mass of workers.
Q. Was Lenin more faithful to the views of Marx himself than the revisionists and economists were?
Possible answers:
• Lenin’s emphasis on the need for conflict and revolution was Marxist in conception.
• His emphasis on the need to eliminate altogether the bourgeois system and the government that supported it is also better represented in Lenin that revisionists or economists thought.
• However, his emphasis on the leadership of a socialist intelligentsia is not central to Marx’s argument and contrasts with the wider participation offered by revisionists and economists.
• His idea that a small, elite group of professional revolutionaries should lead the movement is not central to Marx’s thought.
Q. In what ways did Lenin’s views reflect the specific conditions of Russia?
Possible answers:
• Lenin’s discounting of the possibility of meaningful change through political channels may in part be the result of a lack of suitable channels in Russia, like a parliament or elections, through which socialists could press for change.
• His vision of a small, secretive cadre of professional revolutionaries may reflect the realities of operating in Russia, where the autocratic regime frequently sought to crush political dissent through arrests and imprisonment.
Visual Sources Essay Questions
Visual Source 18.1: The Machinery Department of the Crystal Palace
Q. What overall impression of Britain’s industrial technology was this engraving intended to convey? Notice the building itself as well as the machinery.
Possible answers:
• The scale, intricacy, and complexity of the machinery, and the sophistication of the manufacturing process on display, indicates that British manufacturing technology was on the cutting edge of industry.
• The setting contributes to the sense of how this machinery shaped British life. The building was considered a marvel of its time and was built of steel and glass produced by British factories using similar machinery.
Q. How are the visitors to this exhibit portrayed? What segment of British society do you think they represent? What does their inclusion suggest about the beneficiaries of the Industrial Revolution?
Possible answers:
• The visitors are portrayed as interested spectators and in family units indicating that the outing was suitable for all genders and ages.
• They are dressed in clothing that suggest middle- and upper-class backgrounds. No working class figures are present.
• The middle class and the industrial bourgeoisie classes were the chief beneficiaries of the Industrial Revolution, gaining not only greater material wealth from the profits of industry but also free time to attend such events.
Visual Source 18.2: The Railroad as a Symbol of the Industrial Era
Q. What attitude toward the railroad in particular and the industrial age in general does this image suggest?
Possible answers:
• It was a positive development that allowed for greater leisure and travel.

• The industrial age provided new opportunities for people and improved the quality of life for some.
Q. Notice the view out the window. What do the telegraph lines and St. Paul’s Cathedral, a famous feature of the London landscape, contribute to the artist’s message?
Possible answers:
• The telegraph lines remind the viewer of other advances ushered in by the industrial revolution that have helped to improve communication.
• Saint Paul from an artistic standpoint provides a familiar background. From the perspective of the new industrial society, it reminds the viewer of how the new developments have cut into the heart of the old cities (also shown in the the train crossing the Thames) and how the new technologies coexist with the older accomplishments of preindustrial England.
Q. What marks this family as middle class? How would you compare this image with the painting of middle class life on page 834? Do the two families derive from the same segments of the middle class? Do you think they could mix socially?
Possible answers:
• Details that mark the family as middle class include their travel on a train in a luxury cabin; their dress; the father’s ability to read, as represented by the newspaper; the fact that they are returning from a vacation.
• Both families display the trappings of the middle class through their clothing and the items in their possession.
• It is unclear whether they derive from the same segments of middle class society; one family is returning from vacation while another is having tea or coffee in their home.
• A student could make the case that the family on page 834 is of a higher social standing because of their dress, the presence of a servant, and the quality of the porcelain table setting. Therefore, they would be unlikely to mix with the family on the train.
• However, a student could also argue that
the family on the train is of the same status as the family depicted on page 834, but because they are
in the process of traveling, they do not display the same trappings of status. In this case, the two families could reasonably be expected to
socialize.

Q. What does the poem at the top of the image suggest about the place of “home” in industrial Britain? How does the image itself present the railway car as a home away from home?
Possible answers:
• Home was a familiar venue for everyday
life and leisure. It carried with it a sense of familiarity and security in a world that was rapidly changing because of new transport and travel opportunities.
• As a home away from home, the railway car possesses covered benches, curtains and other soft furnishings similar to those found at home. The family sits in a private cabin, maintaining an element of privacy similar to home.
Visual Source 18.3: Eyre Crowe, Outside the Factory: The Dinner Hour, Wigan
Q. How would you respond to these comments on Crowe’s painting? In particular do you think it was an “entirely honest” portrayal of factory life for women? What was missing?
Possible answers:
• Students could argue that the comments reflect the interests and perceptions of elites, and that to a modern eye there is more aesthetic beauty in the scene than these commentators indicate.
• Students might conclude that the factory setting and the clothing and demeanor of the
women and indicate an honest portrayal of factory life.
• Students could also argue that the scene has an idyllic quality that may be misleading, with women happily socializing during one of the few moments of rest in a long day of labor. They are in simple but clean attire on a brick-paved square that gives no indication of the squalor and overcrowding common in many urban neighborhoods.
• Missing from the scene is the squalor of urban life. None of the women display injuries from their work, and the scene depicts one of the few periods of rest in a day dominated by intense labor.
Q. Why do you think Crowe set this scene outside the factory rather than within it?
Possible answers:
• The outside setting is more aesthetically pleasing, with better light and a more interesting background.
• Women interacting socially rather than in
a work situation provided a more interesting
subject.
• Crowe wished to depict these women in
a more human setting rather than on the factory floor.
Q. Notice the details of the painting—the young women’s relationship to one another, the hairnets on their heads, their clothing, their activities during this break from work. What marks them as working-class women? What impression of factory life did Crowe seek to convey? Was he trying to highlight or minimize the class differences of industrial
Britain?
Possible answers:
• The details that mark their working-class status include their clothing; their presence in a public setting without men from their household; their eating in public on the street; and their hairnets, which indicate their status as factory workers.
• Crowe does not portray any of the deprivations, monotony, or dangers of factory work; instead he focuses on a brief period of rest and socializing in what otherwise was a long and difficult workday.
• Because Crowe neglects to include many of the worst problems of factory life, students could argue that he is seeking to minimize class differences. Students might also argue that by choosing these women as a subject for a painting that would be viewed by middle- and upper-class observers, Crowe was highlighting class differences.
Q. Notice the small male figure in a dark coat and carrying a cane. At least one observer of this painting has suggested that he may well be the mill owner, the “figure around which their [the women’s] life depends.” If so, how would you imagine his relationship to the young women?
Possible answers:
• Students could argue that he saw these women as one commodity among many needed to keep his factory operating.
• He may have viewed these women with paternal interest, since they were an important part of his operation.
• He may have viewed them with suspicion, because periods of socializing among workers could provide an environment in which they could organize.

Visual Source 18.4: Inside the Factory: Lewis Hine, Child Labor, 1912
Q. What impressions of factory life does Hine seek to convey in this photograph?
Possible answers:
• the intense labor
• the crowded and dirty conditions
• the use of child labor
Q. How do the women and children in this image compare with those in Visual Source 18.3?
Possible answers:
• Here, the women are depicted at work rather than at leisure, and inside rather than outside.
• Their clothing is less substantial and they are less likely to have shoes.
• The supervision by factory management is much more clear.
Q. How would you imagine a conversation between Hine and Crowe discussing these two images?
Possible answers:
• Hine, as a social campaigner, would likely point out the romanticized aspects of Crowe’s painting; question the choice of a leisure setting rather than a factory work scene; and point out the lack of urban squalor.
• Crowe might question the aesthetic values of Hine’s photo.
• Hines and Crowe might have agreed that the working class were worthy of depiction, and that such depictions provide an opportunity to raise awareness among elites of the factory workers’ lives.
Q. Notice the male figure smoking a pipe. What do you think his role in the factory might be?
Possible answers:
• He could be the factory floor manager or the factory owner.
Q. Is a photograph necessarily a more truthful image than a painting? Consider the advantages and disadvantages of each as a source of information for historians.
Possible answers:
• The camera does faithfully replicate the scene before its lens. However, it can be difficult to assert that a photograph is necessarily more truthful

because the photographer can shape the image, for example by choosing the lighting or the angle at which the photo is taken. The photographer can also stage or alter a scene before taking a photo.
• A painting depicts a scene through the eye of the artist and is therefore subjective. Nonetheless, the artist is capable of creating a painting that faithfully depicts a scene, so it is possible that some paintings may be more “truthful” than photographs.
Visual Source 18.5: Philip James de Loutherbourg, Coalbrookdale by Night
Q. To what extent does that image reflect the description of Coalbrookdale above? Why do you think the artist set the image at night?
Possible answers:
• The image depicts the physical landscape of a winding glen between two immense hills correctly.
• It offers a stark contrast between the natural setting and the glowing light of the forge, as does the written account;
• It depicts the flames bursting from the furnaces and the smoke of coal fires in a manner consistent with the written account.
• The picture also conveys, through the glow and the activity in the painting, a sense of noise that is emphasized in the written account.
Q. How would you interpret the flames issuing from the iron foundry? What is conveyed by the industrial debris in the foreground of the image?
Possible answers:
• The flames issuing from the iron foundry seem almost otherworldly, like the gates to the underworld. They seem immense and perhaps even out of control, in part because our view of them is obscured, and they dominate the scene.
• The industrial debris may serve an aesthetic purpose, as the debris bears a close resemblance to the motif of toppled columns of ancient ruins common in genre paintings of the period. Or it may be intended to represent the impact of industrial production on a pristine environment.
Q. How are human figures portrayed?
Possible answers:
• The men on the path are likely engaged in work for the foundry, while the woman and child to the left appear to be residents of the village.
• The figures are small despite being in the foreground, helping to accentuate the size of the industrial operation.
Q. What overall impression of the industrial age does this painting suggest? Does the painting strike you as beautiful, horrific, or both?
Possible answers:
• The painting emphasizes the profound changes to communities that came with industrialization; the importance of fossil fuels to the industrial revolution; and the impact of the industrial revolution on the environment.
• Students could make the case that the painting is beautiful, horrific, or both.
Visual Source 18.6: John Leech, Capital and Labour
Q. How precisely would you define that theme?
Possible answers:
• The leisure, wealth, and luxury of the rich is made possible by the labor, suffering, and deprivation of workers.
Q. How are the sharp class differences of industrial Britain represented in this visual source?
Possible answers:
• Class differences are presented in the juxtaposition of well-dressed, upper-class figures, being waited on by servants, surrounded by luxurious furnishings and pets, placed at the top of the panel and depicted in color; with the working poor, including children, those stooped with age and injury, and workers engaged in hard mining labor, in the background. The working poor are placed at the bottom of the panel and depicted in shades of brown, while the overseer to the left is in color.
Q. How does this visual source connect the Industrial Revolution with Britain’s colonial empire? Notice the figure in the upper right reclining in exotic splendor, perhaps in India.
• The figure to the far upper right of the panel seems to be a native colonial elite figure, represented by his servant, his dress, the exotic furnishings, and the pet parrot.
Q. To what extent does the image correspond with Karl Marx and Frederick Engels’s description of industrial society in Document 18.1 (pp. 856–59)?
Possible answers:
• This visual source possesses many features that correlate well with passages in Document 18.1, including the sharp contrast between privileged bourgeois and exploited proletariat. The integration of the entire world into the bourgeois system is represented by the figure in the top right of the panel. There is a sense of humans as mere labor commodities to be used up in industrial toil.
• However, not all of the Marx selection is represented. There is no sign of the class struggle or revolution envisioned by Marx and Engels, nor is there a sense of the great strides in productivity brought on by industrialization.
Q. How might you understand the figure of the woman and small angel behind a door at the left?
Possible answers:
• These figures might represent hope on the other side of the door from the struggling workers.
• The angel could mean many things and perhaps may even indicate that immigration may provide an outlet for these workers.
Using the Evidence Questions
Documents: Varieties of European Marxism
1. Comparing socialisms: While the various strands of Marxist socialism in nineteenth-century Europe shared some common views and values, it was also a sharply divided movement. How would you describe those commonalities as well as the divisions and controversies?
Possible answers:
• The various strands of Marxism all sought to mitigate the exploitation of the industrial working class. They all framed their ideas in the language of class, and sought to organize to achieve their aims.
• There were divisions and controversies, however. Some sought to work within the existing political system to improve the lot of the working class, while others advocated revolution.
• Some focused more on specific groups like women, while others focused on a broad agenda.
• Some groups sought the complete elimination of private capital, while others sought to reform a system that maintained private capital.
• Lenin sought to organize his socialist movement around a small core of professional revolutionaries, while others sought to organize broader coalitions of workers to achieve their goals.
2. Connecting human rights and socialism: To what extent did socialist thinking reflect the human rights concerns expressed in the documents of Chapter 17? In what ways might socialists have taken issue with human rights advocates?
Possible answers:
• The documents in both Chapters 17 and 18 uphold the absolute sovereignty of the people; object to the exploitation of the many by the few; and have a potential impact on the status and freedoms of women.
• However, the clear defense of private property rights in the documents of Chapter 17 conflict with the writings of several socialists in Chapter 18.
• Several socialists in Chapter 18 might have objected to the lack of passages concerning the economic rights of people in Chapter 17 like those found in the UN Universal Statement on human rights.
3. Understanding class: In what ways do these documents help you understand the experience of “class” during the first century of the industrial era?
Possible answers:
• Class became a defining feature around which political movements were formed.
• The Industrial Revolution spawned the emergence of new classes and new relations between classes, in part because it created huge disparities in wealth.
• Ideas of class could lead both to revolutionary movements and to movements that sought to work within the existing political system.
• Ideas of class had significant implications for participants in feminist movements.
4. Considering responses to socialism: With which of the variant forms of socialism might Marx himself been most and least sympathetic? Which of them do you think would have had most appeal in the United States? How might a manager or owner of a modern industrial enterprise respond to these ideas?
Possible answers:
• Central to Marx’s theories was the idea that real change could only take place through revolution; therefore, he was likely to be sympathetic with Lenin’s form of socialism even if he had not envisioned a professional revolutionary cadre to lead the struggle.
• He would likely have been sympathetic to the sentiments expressed in the Internationale: it advocated the elimination of private capital, organization and struggle against exploitation, and the emergence of a new society led by free workers.
• Marx might have been less sympathetic to Bernstein and Zetkin, who both insisted that change could take place without the seizure of capital and working with governments that Marx defines as existing only to serve the needs of the bourgeois.
• Because the United States possessed democratic institutions through which socialists could work and a significant feminist movement, the tradition of Bernstein and Zetkin may have been appealing. Because of the huge inequities between rich and poor and efforts to crush trade unions, some in the United States may have been attracted to the ideas of Marx or Lenin or the sentiments expressed in “The Internationale.”
• How the owner of a modern enterprise would respond to socialist ideas would depend heavily on his or her sentiments. Students could argue a variety of reactions, from those who would be threatened by and need to suppress ideas to those who embraced them and sought to work in partnership with his or her workers.
Visual Sources: Art and the Industrial Revolution
1. Deciphering class: In what different ways is social class treated in these visual sources?
Possible answers:
• Visual Sources 18.1 and 18.2 depict aspects of a new middle-class lifestyle that emerged with the industrial revolution.
• Visual Source 18.3 depicts working-class women at a moment of leisure, providing a contrast to Visual Sources 18.4 and 18.6 , both of which show the hard labor and suffering endured by working-class people.
• Visual Source 18.6 also contrasts the bourgeois and working classes more starkly than any other image by portraying the bourgeois in color, surrounded by luxury at the top of the panel, and the working poor in shades of brown at the bottom.
2. Celebrating industrialization: Based on these visual sources, the documents on socialism (pp. 855–66), and the text of Chapter 18, construct an argument in celebration of the Industrial Revolution.
Possible answers:
• A good response would draw on Visual Source 18.1 to illustrate technological advances; and Visual Source 18.2, along with the passages on textbook pages 834–835, to explain the emergence of the middle class.
• Also included would be passages from Marx that chronicle the accomplishments of the bourgeois period, along with the passages on pages 826–832 to explain the revolutionary transformation in the productive capacity of society.
• It would draw on the selections from Bernstein and Zetkin, along with the passages on pages 837–839, that show the channels through which workers mitigated the worst effects of industrialization by organizing trade unions and working within democratic systems.
3. Criticizing industrialization: Construct another argument based on the evidence in the chapter criticizing the Industrial Revolution.
Possible answers:
• A good response will note the structural problems with the bourgeois system that guarantee economic crises and the exploitation of workers as explained by Marx in Document 18.1, along with the passages on pages 837–839 in the text.
• It would cite the need for radical revolution as explained by Lenin in Document 18.5, along with the passages on pages 843–846 in the text.
• Visual Sources 18.4 and 18.6, which depict the conditions of industrial labor and the issue of child labor, along with the passages on pages 835–836, would be mentioned.
• Students should mention Visual Source 18.5, which depicts the negative environmental impact of industrialization; and Visual Source 18.6, which depicts the problems caused by the global reach of the industrial revolution, along with textbook pages 840–841, 846–854.
4. Considering images as evidence: What are the strengths and limitations of visual sources such as these in helping historians understand the Industrial Revolution?
Possible answers:
• Visual sources effectively portray the new spaces created by the industrial revolution; the impact of the industrial revolution on the

preindustrial landscape; and the new middle-class culture of leisure.
• Photographs like the one by Hine provide a sense of working conditions that complement written descriptions.
• Images such as Visual Source 18.6 provide a sense of social critiques for a mass audience at the time.
• Images such as Visual Source 18.3 provide a sense of how the industrial revolution could be romanticized.
5. Distinguishing capitalism and industrialization: To what extent are the visual sources in this section actually dealing with the Industrial Revolution itself and in what ways are they addressing the economic system known as capitalism? How useful is this distinction for understanding reactions to the industrial age?
Possible answers:
• Visual Sources 18.1 and 18.5 deal directly with the machinery and technologies of the Industrial Revolution, although they could address the capitalist system that created the markets for their products and the capital for their construction.
• Visual Sources 18.3 and 18.4 depict factory workers, and therefore explore an aspect of the Industrial Revolution, while at the same time they depict the capitalist system in action as wage labor is employed in the production of goods for the market.
• Visual Source 18.2 depicts middle-class consumption and so might be considered primarily an image of capitalism, although the scene is set in a train and depicts telegraph poles—both new communication systems associated with the industrial revolution.
• Visual Source 18.6 primarily concerns
itself with the gap in living conditions between rich and poor in the bourgeois system, and therefore might best be considered a commentary on capitalism, although it does depict mining, an industrial activity.
• Such a distinction can be useful because
the Industrial Revolution was a specific manifestation of the wider phenomenon known as capitalism. However, the impact of the Industrial Revolution was also the impact of capitalism, making a clear distinction between the two
difficult.
Class Discussion for the Documents and Visual Sources Features
Critical Analysis (large or small group): Revolution or Evolution?
Ask students to return to the documents to identify the advantages and disadvantages for the working class of a revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system, and the efforts by more moderate socialists to improve working conditions within the capitalist system. In discussing revolutions, some questions to consider include:
• What are the advantages to revolution?
• What are the potential disadvantages?
• Does Marx or Lenin offer a clear sense of how the economy and government will work under the new system?
• Can students identify any potential dangers to revolution?
Regarding Democratic Socialism, some questions to consider include:
• What potential advantages or disadvantages does the more moderate socialist movements offer?
• Can working within the system really achieve the goals of socialism?
• To what extent does the existence of a capitalist system work against the interests of the proletariats?
Conclude by asking whether students think that the lot of industrial workers across the world today has improved markedly compared with the experiences of their predecessors in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?
Contextualization (large or small groups): Was the industrial revolution a good thing?
Expand on Using the Evidence questions 2 and 3 to explore the accomplishments and costs of industrialization. Ask students whether they believe that the industrial revolution was a good or bad thing. What specifically makes it good? What were its costs? What criteria are your students using to assess it? Does the impact of the industrial revolution on their own life shape their perception? How does the impact on the lives of people at the time impact on their assessment? If students use alternative criteria does it change their opinion? Conclude by pushing the debate forward. What has been the legacy of the industrial revolution? Be sure to cover both its positive impact, on such things as standards of living, and its negative impact, on such things as the environment.
Classroom Activities for the Documents and Visual Sources Features
Contextualization (large or small groups): Recruiting socialists
Ask students to refer to the documents to identify what aspects of the socialist message were likely to appeal to working-class people in the factory towns of the United States during the industrial revolution. If they place themselves in the situation of a factory worker, would they find the socialist message appealing? How can they account for the failure of most factory workers in America to embrace socialism? What can these factors tell us about the relationship between political ideology and other cultural and social forces in societies?
Contextualization (large or small groups): Marx in pictures
Ask students how they would use the visual sources to illustrate Document 18.1. Conclude by asking what this project can tell us about the usefulness of visual sources for conveying ideas. Which parts of the Marx selection are best suited to illustration? Which parts are least easily illustrated? Why?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR CHAPTER 18
Bedford/St. Martin’s Resources
Computerized Test Bank
This test bank provides over thirty exercises per chapter, including multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, short-answer, and full-length essay questions. Instructors can customize quizzes, add or edit both questions and answers, and export questions and answers to a variety of formats, including WebCT and Blackboard. The disc includes correct answers and essay outlines.
Instructor’s Resource CD-ROM
This disc provides instructors with ready-made and customizable PowerPoint multimedia presentations built around chapter outlines, as well as maps, figures, and images from the textbook, available in both jpeg and PowerPoint formats:
• Map 18.1: The Early Phase of Europe’s Industrial Revolution (p. 829)
• Map 18.2: The Industrial United States in 1900 (p. 841)
• Map 18.3: Latin America and the World, 1825–1935 (p. 850)
• The Crystal Palace Machine Shop (p. 868)
• The Railroad—A Symbol of the Industrial Era (p. 869)
• Outside the Factory (p. 870)
• Child Labor (p. 872)
• “Coalbrookdale by Night” (p. 873)
• Capital and Labour (p. 874)
Documents and Essays from Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader, Third Edition (Volume 2)
The following documents, essays, and illustrations to accompany Chapter 18 are available in Volume 2, Chapter 7 of this reader by Kevin Reilly:
• Arnold Pacey, Asia and the Industrial Revolution
• Adam Smith, from The Wealth of Nations
• From The Sadler Report of the House of Commons
• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, from The Communist Manifesto
• Peter N. Stearns, The Industrial Revolution Outside the West
• John H. Coatsworth, Economic Trajectories in Latin America
• Iwasaki Yataro, Mitsubishi Letter to Employees
Online Study Guide at bedfordstmartins.com/strayer
The Online Study Guide helps students synthesize the material from the textbook as well as practice the skills historians use to make sense of the past. Each chapter contains specific testing exercises, including a multiple-choice self-test that focuses on important conceptual ideas; an identification quiz that helps students remember key people, places, and events; a flashcard activity that tests students on their knowledge of key terms; and two interactive map activities intended to strengthen students’ geographic skills. Instructors can monitor students’ progress through an online Quiz Gradebook or receive email updates.
Further Reading
Acker, Alison. Honduras: The Making of a Banana Republic. Boston: South End Press, 1989. An interesting study of U.S.–Honduran relations.
Deane, Phyllis. The First Industrial Revolution. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980. A clearly written and useful survey of the Industrial Revolution in the period 1750–1850.
Frader, Laura L. The Industrial Revolution: A History in Documents. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. A slim volume that weaves together narrative and documents, suitable for classroom use.
The History Guide: Industrial Revolution Resources, http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/ind_rev.html. This site supplies both Internet links and a useful bibliography of books on the subject.
Marxism Page, http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/ marx/marx.html. This site includes Marxist classics, graphics, and even a recording of “The Internationale.”
Newman, Michael. Socialism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Very short indeed at 144 pages, this is an excellent introduction to the subject.
Stearns, Peter N. The Industrial Revolution in World History. 3rd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2007. An examination of the impact of industrialization on several major societies.
Victorian England: Directory of Online Resources, http://www.academicinfo.net/histukvictorian
.html. An excellent collection.
Web Sites for the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, http://bss.sfsu.edu/cherny/gapesites.htm. A nice selection of both primary and secondary materials on U.S. history between 1865 and 1920.
Literature
Alger, Horatio. Ragged Dick; and, Struggling Upward. London: Penguin, 1985. Two terrific “rags to riches” stories, originally sold as dime novels, by a great nineteenth-century American advocate of success through hard work.
Crane, Stephen. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, and Other Tales of New York. 2nd ed. London: Penguin, 2000. First published in 1893, the title story gives a chilling picture of life in New York City.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings. 2nd ed. London: Penguin, 2003. The famous tale of a capitalist and his reclamation.
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. 3rd ed. New York: Norton, 2000. A hard look at capitalist exploitation and what comes of trying to make humans into machines.
Engels, Friedrich. The Condition of the Working-Class in England. London: Penguin, 1987. A scathing indictment of nineteenth-century capitalism.
Halsall, Paul, ed. Internet Modern History Sourcebook. http://www.fordham.edu/ halsall/mod/modsbook.html. A large number of primary sources that address a range of issues of the nineteenth-century world.
Howells, William Dean. The Rise of Silas Lapham. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2007. The tale of a nouveau riche American industrialist and his efforts to be accepted into the social elite.
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. Trans. Samuel Moore. 2nd ed. London: Penguin, 2002. A political classic that everyone should read.
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. London: Penguin, 1985. One of the great masterpieces of the Industrial Revolution, The Jungle is a penetrating look at the meatpacking industry and worker movements from the perspective of an immigrant family in America.
Smiles, Samuel. Self-Help. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2002. First published in 1859, this vastly popular book advocates social advancement through hard work.

Film
An Age of Revolutions. Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1996. 23 minutes. Examines the impact of the French and Industrial revolutions on European society.
The Age of Revolutions: 1776–1848. Insight Media, 1985. 26 minutes. Surveys the Atlantic revolutions in America, Latin America, and France before examining the influence of Marx in this wider context.
The Industrial Revolution. Five-part series. Films for the Humanities and Sciences. 19–20 minutes each. A series of short programs, each focused on one of the following themes: “Working Lives”; “Evolving Transportation Systems”; “The Railway Age”; “Harnessing Steam”; “The Growth of Towns and Cities.”
Karl Marx. Insight Media, 2006. 22 minutes. Examines the life and ideas of Karl Marx in the context of the Industrial Revolution.
Organizing America: The History of Trade Unions. Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1994. 38 minutes. Traces the history of American trade unions from the formation of “friendly societies” in the eighteenth century to the 1990s.
Working Lives. Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1992. 20 minutes. Examines the changes to working lives caused by the Industrial Revolution.