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Industrial Revolution and the American Short Story
Contextualization: The Industrial Revolution, from 1820 to 1870, was very important to the economic development of the
United States. The Industrial Revolution was a change from hand and home production to machine and factory. The industrial
revolution was important for the inventions of spinning and weaving machines operated by water power which was eventually
replaced by steam. This helped increase the growth of America. Much technological advancement was made. Steam power and
textile manufacturing were a few of the advancements made.
Along with the advancement of technology, was an overall downfall in the socioeconomic and cultural situation of the people.
Growth of cities was one of the major consequences of the Industrial Revolution. Many people were driven to the cities to
look for work, in turn the ended living in the cities that could not support them. With the new industrial age, a new quantitative
and materialistic view of the world took place. This caused the need for people to consume as much as they could. People lived
on small wages that required small children to work in factories for long days. This led to packed housing and deplorable
conditions.
Salient Points: Industrialization in America involved three important developments. First, transportation was expanded.
Second, electricity was effectively harnessed. Third, improvements were made to industrial processes such as improving the
refining process and accelerating production. During the advancement of technology many inventions were made. These inventions
include the cotton gin and steam power. United States originally used water power to run its factories, with the consequence
that industrialization was essentially limited to New England and the rest of the Northeastern United States, where fast-moving
rivers were located. However, the raw materials (cotton) came from the Southern United States. It was not until after the
American Civil War in the 1860s that steam-powered manufacturing overtook water-powered manufacturing, allowing the industry
to fully spread across the nation. The Industrial Revolution has changed the face of the nation, giving rise to urban centers
requiring vast municipal services. It created a specialized and interdependent economic life and made the urban worker more
completely dependent on the will of the employer than the rural worker had been. Relations between capital and labor were
aggravated, and Marxism was one product of this unrest. Doctrines of laissez-faire, sought to maximize the use of new productive
facilities. But the revolution also brought a need for a new type of state intervention to protect the laborer and to provide
necessary services. Out of This Furnace, by Thomas Bell, is a major work noting the harshness of the revolution on the immigrants
coming to America. In the novel, immigrants are seen as second class citizens in an already deplorable world. http://www.upress.pitt.edu/BookDetails.aspx?bookId=34309
Influence on the Short Story: The Industrial Revolution provided a wide range of material for many nineteenth-century
writers. The literature of the Industrial Revolution includes essays, fiction, and poetry that respond to the enormous growth
of technology as well as the labor and demographic changes it fostered. The transfer of new technologies across the Atlantic
also shaped the development of literature in the United States. As in England, many of the initial responses welcomed the
new technology, finding it indispensable to the economic growth of the fledgling nation. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, writing
near the close of the eighteenth century, believed that the machine would blend harmoniously into the open countryside of
the American Republic rather than produce the overcrowded and polluted cities of Europe. This however was not the case.
Many Americans welcomed the changes of technology. Others, such as the authors Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and
Mark Twain, among others, provided alternative perspectives, often critiquing the materialistic value systems that accompanied
industrialism through the metaphors, themes, and details of their works.
This topic influenced the American Short Story by opening up the field to freedom of allegory. The authors of the time
could write about the troubles of the times without receiving blame, even though the American Constitution provided freedom
of speech. Authors often experienced these events themselves and wished them to be heard. Since the printing press had thus
been invented, these narratives and expositions could be easily duplicated and printed for the masses. The mistreatment of
most common workers was not kept quiet for long. This fueled the fire for a reform on labor in the factories.
Connections to our Class: The story that deals with the class American Short Story is Life in the Iron Mills. This story
tells of a small family that goes by the name of Wolfe. Mr. Wolfe works in the steel mill. His wife, Deborah, spins textiles.
Both show the aging and sickness of hard unreeling labor in their descriptions. Deborah Wolfe looks old, even though she is
young due to long hours. Hugh Wolfe has contracted Tuberculosis. Their living quarters are cramped and unsanitary. These
are all signs of the times. Money is in short supply and Deborah steals some from prominent people who run the factory.
Hugh is imprisoned for her crime for 19 years. In the end, Hugh kills him in prison as it is thought to be his only escape.
This story shows how deplorable conditions were and hope hopelessness ran rampant.
Works Cited:
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/industrialrev/a/indrevoverview.htm
http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/industrial-revolution-literature
http://www.msu.edu/user/brownlow/indrev.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution#United_States
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-IndustR.html
http://www.upress.pitt.edu/BookDetails.aspx?bookId=34309
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