Applied English: review of . . .
Introduction to Industrialization of the U.S. (the late 19th - early 20th centuries)
Professor Jopp's lecture on Monday, June 16, 2003

1. What were three hallmarks of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the U.S.?

2. What changes resulted from industrialization? (at least 6)

3. What caused urbanization? What were the results of urbanization?

4. What were the "new" immigrants like?.

In the late 19th - early 20th centuries there were some hallmarks ( important characteristics = hallmarks) that showed the growth of the country:

industrialization (5 syllables)

• products are made by machine in factories
  • products no longer made by hand
• the nature of work changes when people leave home to work
  • home and work become separate
• watches and clocks become important because people need to go to work at a certain time
  • "time/work discipline"
• Mass production = products become standardized (standardized = everything is the same everywhere = shoes sizes were the same everywhere; products were not made for only one person)
• People bought things instead of making them
  • money became important
  • people were less self-sufficient
  • advertising became important
• work became de-skilled; this work was not so satisfying
• the nature (nature = characteristics) of labor relations changed, too
  • people work with a lot of other people under a manager
• class relations changed, too
  • during this period of history, people became less equal
    • wealthy people who owned big companies became much richer; the wealthy became wealthier
    • the were much larger numbers of poor people
      • most were new immigrants (there were millions)
      • (most blacks still lived in "the south" and worked in agriculture; they were poor, but were not the largest number of poor)
    • a new kind of middle class developed and grew
      • a managerial and professional middle class (educated managers, dentists, doctors, etc.)
    • for the first time in American history, there were very different classes

urbanization (5 syllables)

• factories are urban (in the cities)
• the millions of new immigrants went to the cities not to farms
  • immigrants lived in small, poorly-built, crowed, dirty apartments for workers = tenements
• people left the countryside and moved to cities
• the cities grew so fast than basic services (lights, garbage pick-up, education, etc.) were not sufficient
• living conditions in the cities were very bad

immigration (4 syllables)

• from about 1890 to about 1915, new immigrants were coming from Southern and Eastern Europe (for example, Italy, Russia and Poland)
• most of these immigrants were very, very poor
• most had no skills, no money, and no English skills
• most new immigrants were Catholic not Protestant like the people already in the U.S.