Development of the Industrial U.S. - About | Reader's Guide

The United States began as a nation of farmers living in remote areas, but over a period of two hundred years the country became the wealthiest and most powerful industrial nation of the world. During the American Industrial Revolution inventors and innovators created new and improved machines for manufacturing, while a new breed of American businessmen created revolutionary methods of conducting business and managing labor. The road to industrialization was not always heroic. Ruthlessness and greed were often key ingredients in advancing industry. While a few found wealth and power, multitudes of workers and farmers suffered, and small businesses were crushed by the powerful new corporations. Reformers, unions, and protestors against big business played a crucial role in the industrialization process as they pressed for the rights of workers and regulations on business to help farmers and consumers. The diverse people and events that forever changed the nation from a rural farming economy to an industrialized urban nation create a dramatic story that lies at the heart of U.S. history.

Coverage and features

Development of the Industrial U.S.: Almanac presents an overview of the history of American industrialization. Its fourteen chapters cover the first American factories, inventors, the rise of big business and railroads, urbanism, labor unions, industrial influences in places such as the South or the Great Plains, the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, the post-industrial era, and much more. Each chapter of the Almanac features informative sidebar boxes highlighting glossary terms and issues discussed in the text and concludes with a list of further readings. Also included are more than sixty photographs and illustrations, a timeline, a glossary, a list of suggested research and activity ideas, and an index providing easy access to subjects discussed throughout the volume.

U•X•Development of the Industrial U.S. Reference Library

Development of the Industrial U.S.: Almanac is only one component of the three-part U•X•L Development of the Industrial U.S. Reference Library. The other two titles in the set are:

• Development of the Industrial U.S.: Biographies profiles twenty-six significant figures who participated in American industrialization. The biographies cover a wide spectrum of people, from the creators of the first factories, such as Samuel Slater and Francis Cabot Lowell, to inventors and innovators, including John Fitch, Elijah McCoy, and Thomas Edison. Industrialists Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller are profiled, as are reformers and educators such as Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, and Booker T. Washington. Biographies also includes labor advocates such as Eugene Debs and A. Philip Randolph. The volume features more than fifty photographs and illustrations, a timeline, a glossary, and sources for further reading.
• Development of the Industrial U.S.: Primary Sources presents eighteen full or excerpted written works, speeches, and other documents that were influential during American industrialization. The volume includes excerpts from the writings of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton reflecting their debate on industrialization; excerpts from legislation regarding industrialization, such as the Interstate Commerce Act and the Sherman Antitrust Act; segments of popular novels by Horatio Alger and William Dean Howells depicting the effects of industrialization on American society; political cartoons; a popular labor song; an excerpt from an essay by William Graham Sumner presenting the concept of social Darwinism, and much more. Nearly fifty photographs and illustrations, a timeline, sources for further reading, and an index supplement the volume.

A cumulative index of all three volumes in the U•X•L Development of the Industrial U.S. Reference Library is also available.

Comments and suggestions

We welcome your comments on Development of the Industrial U.S.: Almanac and suggestions for other topics in history to consider. Please write: Editors, Development of the Industrial U.S.: Almanac, U•X•L, 27500 Drake Rd., Farmington Hills, Michigan, 48331-3535; call toll-free: 1-800-877-4253; fax to: 248-699-8097; or send e-mail via http://www.gale.com.