Industrial Revolution

I. What is Revolutionary about Industrialism?
A. Age of machines

1. transformation from animal to mineral power

2. innovation and self-sustaining growth of the economy

B. Reconfiguration of social and political order
1. Rise of per capita wealth

2. Rise of cities and middle classes

3. Society divided by classes

II. Industrialization of Great Britain
A. England suited to industrialization
1. world-wide trade system
2. advanced financial system
3. rich in raw materials
            4. society oiled by money

B. Cotton industry suited to industrialization

1. rise of the machines

2. factory system

3. unhealthy cities

C. ironic implications of cotton industry for America

III. The Class Divide

A. Classes reflect different roles in the industrial economy

1. aristocrats--owners of land and tradition

2. middle class (bourgeoisie)--owners of capital and industry

3. working classes--owners of labor only

B. Class Politics in Britain

1. Aristocrats: conservatism

a. tradition, established church and political privilege

2. Middle Class: liberalism

b. extension of the vote

b. free trade and free markets

c. abolition of slavery

d. professional policymaking

3. Working Classes: liberalism, and later socialism

a. Chartism

b. strikes illegal until 1875

c. socialist parties grow only in late 19^th century

IV. The Government Intervenes

A. What can be done for the poor?

1. Nothing, says David Ricardo (economist)

a. iron law of wages

b. charity only harms the poor

c. 1834 Poor Law established on this premise

2. Humanitarians worry and about the "two Englands"

a. Punch Magazine's cartoons "Substance and Shadow" and "Capital and Labor"

B. Government begins to regulate the new urban environment

1. First government funds for schools (1833)

2. Factory Acts (1833, 1847)

3. Poor Law (1834)

4. Public Health Acts (1848, 1875)

C. Motives and timing of this expansion of public power

1. which classes backed reform?

2. what motivated reformers?