American Studies 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: White Supremacy, Reform Government Of New Zealand, John D. Rockefeller

• School: Western University
• Department: American Studies
• Course: American Studies 1020
• Professor: Tom Cull

Document Summary

Contributions to the fast growth that happened after the end of the civil war: Technological advances: electric writing, automobiles, x-rays, photographs. Electrical steel industries: rise of the railroad. Most powerful form of transportation is the locomotive. 53 thousand miles of railroad laid down. Massive amounts of labor needed to create the railroad. Leads to large amounts of immigration to do this work. 1869 - first continental railroad used: labor and goods can be shipped quickly back and forth between the regions. Creates new jobs, towns, goods for trade. Raw goods have a new way to travel to be manufactured in the cities and then back again to be shipped out from the city to the places it can be bought. Puts farmers in a rut and then kicked off the land. Increasing productivity and reducing product costs: taylorism, assembly line. Families who own a lot of property and companies.