CONTENT STATEMENT
The rise of corporations, heavy industry, mechanized farming and technological innovations transformed the American economy from an agrarian to an increasingly urban industrial society.
CONTENT ELABORATION
Industrialization in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was characterized by the rise of corporations and heavy industry, which transformed the American economy. Consequences of this transformation included:
a shift from a predominance of agricultural workers to a predominance of factory workers;
a shift from rural living to urban living, with more people living in crowded and unsanitary conditions;
new technologies made production more efficient as machines replaced human labor;
increased agricultural production due to mechanized farming; and
the development of the mechanized assembly line and mass production which led to the transition from skilled to unskilled labor.
Some of the technological innovations that transformed the American economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries included the telephone, phonograph, incandescent light bulb, washing machine, skyscraper, automobile, and airplane.
EXPECTATIONS FOR LEARNING
Analyze how the rise of corporations, heavy industry, mechanized farming and technological innovations transformed the American economy from an agricultural economy to an increasingly industrial economy.