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Industrialization and the Transformation of American Life: A Brief Introduction
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Comments/Reviews
Description: This book provides a descriptive, episodic yet analytical synthesis of industrialization in America. It integrates analysis of the profound economic and social changes taking place during the period between 1877 and the start of the Great Depression. Ten topics--varieties of industrialization, questions of labor, immigration, urbanization, the Westward movement, the environment, transportation, power, politics, and the organization of work--are examined with each subject illustrated by three case studies. The 30 case studies were selected as examples of the underlying principles of industrialization that cumulatively convey a comprehensive understanding of the era.
To view additional illustrations that complement the book, visit www.mesharpe-student.com.
Selected Contents:
Preface
Introduction
1. Varieties of Industrialization
The Edgar Thomson Works of the Carnegie Steel Company
The Triangle Shirtwaist Company
The Washburn "A" Flour Mill
2. The Labor Question
The Knights of Labor
The American Federation of Labor
The Industrial Workers of the World
3. Immigration
The Chinese Exclusion Act
The Alien Contract Labor Law and Other Immigration Regulation
The Dillingham Commission
4. Urbanization
The Columbian Exhibition and the Real Chicago
Streetcar Suburbs
Structural Steel and the Elevator
5. The West
Refrigerated Transport
Factories in the Fields
The Dawes Severalty Act and Native American Education
6. Environment
Oysters
The Destruction of the Longleaf Pine
Industrialization and the Origins of American Environmentalism
7. Transportation
The Power of the Locomotive
Railroad Space, Railroad Time
Steamships
8. The Politics of Industrialization
The Sherman Antitrust Act
Populism
The Progressive Movement
9. Reform
Taylorism
Fordism
Welfare Capitalism
Epilogue
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Comment(s): "Rees covers a large swath of land and has done so in an economical and quite interesting traverse. The topical method of organization as well as the choice of topics is laudable. He has skillfully tied the discussion of those topics closely and consistently to the main thread of industrialization. ... In spite of its brevity, this is one of the clearest, cleanest, and most useful accounts of industrialization that I have read." -- Stanley K. Schultz, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"Ingenious and insightful, this book is a marvelous introduction to a subject that every college-educated student should know about." -- Robert W. Rydell, Montana State University
"Rees's book takes industrialization, a concept we think we know so well, as his lens into the Progressive Era, and shows us how no moment, person, or event remains untouched by its power. By systematically describing what industrialization is and entails, he requires us to think twice about commonplace items, habits, and institutions we take for granted and instead, see their potential--both frightening and alluring--to transform the country into a modern nation." -- Robin Henry, Wichita State University
Review(s): "This accessible title could serve as supplemental reading for a survey course in US history or an upper-division course in US industrialization, the Gilded Age, or the Progressive Era. Recommended. All levels of undergraduate students." -- Choice
"In his concise and insightful book, Jonathan Rees has provided teachers of survey courses a handy guide for teaching the period from the Civil War to the 1920s. Rees provides not only a useful tool for teaching the period, but also advances the view that the era is best dealt with topically, encouraging historians to consider a review of their thoughts, lectures, and lesson plans for the topic. The scope and succinctness of Rees's work are complemented by the clarity of his writing. This work was written with the student in mind: its brevity, the simplicity of expression, and organization of the material are clear and straightforward. Perhaps the most useful aspect of the text is the ordering of the topics in such a way that teachers who are less familiar with the era can increase their awareness easily and find useful anecdotes for lectures and presentations." -- Teaching History
    
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