HSTS
421 and HSTS 521
WEEK
3
Reading: John Kasson, "The Factory as Republican
Community" [Circulation/Reserves reading] [skim carefully]
Hindle
and Lubar, Chapters 1-3, 8
Some of the points and themes
I’d like you to gain from our readings:
Kasson, “The Factory as
Republican Community.” [Nb:
this is a chapter from Kasson’s book, Civilizing the Machine: Technology and
Republican Values in America, 1770-1900 ]
* Introduction of new
manufacturing centers introduced profound changes in American society. “What social environment would manufacturers
create?,” Kasson asks. Could a system
of American manufacture be fashioned that “would nurture and protect the
health, intelligence, independence, and virtue” of people involved in these
systems, “qualities essential to a republic?
Or would factories breed disease, ignorance, dependence, and
corruption?” (55). Using the mill town
of Lowell, Massachusetts as an example, Kasson addresses this question, which
was critically important to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander
Hamilton and other early leaders of the United States as they sought to chart
their preferred trajectory for the development of the new nation.
Hindle
and Lubar, Chapters 1-3, 8
Chapter 1. The Industrial
Revolution and Technological Change (pp.
9-26)
The Industrial Revolution Awas one of the great turning points of modern history.@ (9). Why was
this so? Transition from craft
technology to powered special-purpose machines; rise of high-skilled
technicians, limited skilled workers, and the factory followed. This chapter explores how the [first]
industrial revolution came about, and what propelled it: what crafts did the
industrial revolution particularly change?
Why is the steam engine so crucial to this development? Where and why did the steam engine
develop? What socioeconomic changes
accompanied the spread of the steam engine?
Chapter 2. The New United
States: Land of Opportunities (pp.
27-43)
Starting question: AWhat was it about the United States that encouraged
effective response to the appeal of the Industrial Revolution and permitted the
fulfillment of so many of its promises?@
(p. 27). That is, why was the
Industrial Revolution take root so successfully and spectacularly in the
U.S.? Hindle and Lubar suggest two answers:
available natural resources, and even more the American people: their Aattitudes, reduced institutional constrictions, and
personal drives for material improvement.@
(27) The authors then proceed to make
this argument. They discuss the faith
Americans placed in national political institutions and ideals, the young
nation=s resources, and opportunities for citizens.
Chapter 8: The John Bull and the Rise of American Railroading (pp.
125-151)
The railroads were a
critically important source of technological change; Hindle and Lubar write
that the railroad Aepitomized American technological and commercial
development@ (125). It was
the vehicle, literally and symbolically, that opened the west to exploration
and (as we especially saw in AThe Grandest
Enterprise Under God@ came to link the Pacific and Atlantic coasts after
the Civil War. The railroad symbolized
Aa new way of life founded on machines and factories.@ (125). This chapter explores the dramatic evolution
of the railroad from its origins in Great Britain to its adaptation in the U.S.
as a study of the growth of a technological system. (Among the issues discussed: why were
railroads especially important for the development of the U.S.? What were the social and political
consequences of their development?)