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AMSCO 5.9 Society and the Industrial Age Notes
1 min read•june 18, 2024
Topic 5.9
📍Topic 5.9 Society and the Industrial Age
📖 AMSCO p.343 - p.350
Main Idea
Key Timeline
Image Courtesy of Riya
Things to Know
Effects on Urban Areas
- Tenements
- Working families had to live in crowded conditions
- Diseases spread quickly
- These buildings were owned by factory owners
- Located in low-income areas called slums
- Crime rates increased
- Working families had to live in crowded conditions
- Conditions Led To:
- Development of sewage and drainage systems
- Improved sanitation
- More clean water
Effects on Class Structure
- Classes of Society in Britain
- Bottom: Working Class
- Worked in factories and coal mines
- Received low wages
- Middle Class
- Factory and office managers (white-collar workers)
- Literate and educated
- Top: Industrialists
- Owners of big companies
- “Captains of Industry” - overshadowed others
- Bottom: Working Class
Farm Work vs. Factory Work
- Farm Work
- Before industrialization, women could work from home
- People used to work near each other
- Relaxed work schedules
- Factory Work
- Industrialized machines made everyone go into factories
- Long-hour shifts - 14 hours a day, 6 days a week
- Injuries and deaths increased
Effects on Children
- Children as young as 5 worked in textile mills and coal mines
- Exposed to dangerous conditions:
- Heated conditions
- Carried heavy materials
- Breathed in coal/factory dust
- Collapsing mines and flooding
Effects on Women’s Lives
- Working-class women worked in coal mines
- Primary laborers in textile factories
- Paid women 1/2 of what they paid men
- Becoming a housewife = status symbol
- This meant that the husband was capable of being the only provider
- “Cult of domesticity” - idealized female homemaker
- Feminism also rose
- 1848 - Seneca Falls, New York
- Equality for women
- 1848 - Seneca Falls, New York
Effects on the Environment
- Pollution
- Air
- Fossil fuels - coal, petroleum, and natural gas
- Burning wood
- Smog led to respiratory problems
- Water
- Industries dumped waste into bodies of water nearby
- Led to cholera, typhoid, and other diseases
- Air
Legacy of the Industrial Revolution
- Mass production made goods cheaper, available, and easily produced
- Factory growth inspired movement from rural areas to the city
- Urban shift for work
- Led to pollution of air and water
- Relationship between workers and owners
- Pay and inequality
- Bad living conditions led to diseases and deaths
- Pay and inequality
Terms to Remember
| Term | Definition + Significance |
| Tenements | Poorly maintained apartment buildings in urban areas, which symbolized unsanitary and inadequate living conditions for the working class. |
| Slums | Impoverished urban neighborhoods, which were often overcrowded and highlighted socio-economic disparities during industrialization |
| White-Collar Workers | The middle-class population who worked in office-based jobs. This highlighted the diversity of jobs amongst the middle class during industrialization. |
| Working Class | People who worked in manual and industrial labor industries. They faced various challenges like unsafe working and living conditions. |
| Industrialization | Shift from farming-based economy to factories. More mechanized technologies brought about various economic and societal changes. |
| Hierarchy | Social structure during the Industrial Age. Middle-class and factory owners rose in status, while the urban poor faced hardship. |
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