Oberlin College

Gary J. Kornblith
History 258
Rice 306
Spring 2004

x58526
gary.kornblith@oberlin.edu
Office hours: Wed., 3:30- 5 p.m.,
and by appointment

The Industrial Revolution in America

[Note: The official, up-to-date syllabus for this course is online at http://www.oberlin.edu/history/GJK/H258S2004/.]

In the century after the adoption of the federal Constitution, the United States developed from an overwhelming agrarian society into the world' s leading industrial power. This course examines industrialization as, variously, an economic, technological, political, environmental, and cultural process that transformed both the nation's social order and the daily lives of ordinary Americans. To understand the causes, dynamics, and consequences of industrialization, we will employ a wide range of analytic strategies, evaluate a variety of scholarly interpretations, and make extensive use of both print and electronic resources. During the second half of the term, students will undertake original research projects in primary documents. Throughout the semester students will be encouraged to think critically and independently about the history of capitalist development in the United States. Everyone is expected to contribute to class discussions--both face-to-face and online--and to promote a constructive educational environment.

Evaluation: Final grades will be based on one 3-4 page position paper (20%), one 7-8 page research paper (40%), a 3-5 page final essay (20%), and class participation (20%), including contributions to Blackboard and an oral presentation of research results. The instructor reserves the right to exercise some discretion in assigning final grades.

Honor Code: All course work is covered by Oberlin's Honor Code. If you have a question about how the Honor Code applies to a particular assignment, you should ask the professor in advance of the due date.

Purchases: Students are expected to buy the following books. They are available for purchase at the Oberlin Bookstore.

  • Elaine S. Abelson, When Ladies Go A-Thieving
  • Tyler Anbinder, Five Points
  • Sven Beckert, The Monied Metropolis
  • Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward
  • Gary J. Kornblith, ed., The Industrial Revolution in America
  • Paul Krause, The Battle for Homestead, 1880-1892
  • Bruce Laurie, From Artisans to Workers

Standard Oil Co.'s No. 1 Refinery, Cleveland, 1889. WRHS.

Class Schedule:

Mon., Feb. 9

Introduction

Wed., Feb. 11

Discussion: The Age of Homespun

  • Horace Bushnell, "The Age of Homespun" [on ERes]

 

Fri., Feb. 13

Discussion: Scholary Controversy over the Transition to Capitalism
 
 

Mon., Feb. 16

Lecture: The Political Economy of the New Nation

Wed., Feb. 18


Hamilton


Jefferson

 

Discussion: Founders' Debate over Manufactures and Development

 

Fri., Feb. 20

Discussion: Bases of American Industrialization

 

Mon., Feb. 23

Lecture: The Transformation of Craft Production

Wed., Feb. 25

Discussion: The Social Significance of Craft Transformation

  • Gary J. Kornblith, "The Entrepreneurial Ethic," in Kornblith, ed., Industrial Revolution in America, 71-79
  • Sean Wilentz, "The Bastardization of Craft," in ibid., 79-87
  • Michael Zakim, "Sartorial Ideologies: From Homespun to Ready-Made," American Historical Review 106 (Dec. 2001): 1553-1586 [in History Cooperative]

 

Fri., Feb. 27

Discussion: Early Labor Radicalism

 
 

Mon., Mar. 1

Lecture: The Coming of the Cotton Mill

Wed., Mar. 3


Lowell National Historical Park

Discussion: Values and Behavior of Early Factory Workers

  • Sidney Pollard, "Factory Discipline in the Industrial Revolution," Economic History Review, new ser., 16 (1963): 254-71 [in JSTOR]
  • Jonathan Prude, "Social Conflict in the Early Mills," in Kornblith, ed., Industrial Revolution in America, 40-53
  • Thomas Dublin, "Factory Employment as Female Empowerment," in ibid., 53-62

 

Fri., Mar. 5

Discussion: Experience of Lowell Mill Women

 
 

Mon., Mar. 8



Five Points, New York City

Lecture: The Rise of the Metropolis

Wed., Mar. 10

Discussion: Interpreting the Immigrant Experience

  • Anbinder, Five Points, 14-140
  • David R. Roediger, "Race, Ethnicity, and Working-Class Formation," in Kornblith, ed., Industrial Revolution in America, 120-128

 

Fri., Mar. 12

Video: New York: A Documentary Film, episode 2 (excerpt)

Position Paper due

 

Mon., Mar. 15

Lecture: Industrialization and Civil War

Wed., Mar. 17

Discussion: Class, Race, Ethnicity, and Abolition

  • Laurie, Artisans into Workers, 47-112
  • Beckert, Monied Metropolis, 78-97
  • Anbinder, Five Points, 7-13, 141-71, 207-308 [note revised page numbers]

 

Fri., Mar. 19

Library session: Meet in Mudd 443
 
 

Mon., Mar. 22

Lecture: The Rise of Big Business

Wed., Mar. 24


New York Central Debt Certificate

Discussion: The Difference Bigness Made

 

Fri., Mar. 26

No class

SPRING BREAK

Mon., Apr. 5

Mobility, Meritocracy, and the Middle-Class Ideal

 

Wed., Apr. 7

Discussion: Dynamics of Consumerism

  • Blumin, "Urban Lifestyles and Middle-Class Formation," in Kornblith, ed., Industrial Revolution in America,101-111
  • Abelson, When Ladies Go A-Thieving, 3-90, 148-96, and illustrations between p. 90 and p. 91

Fri., Apr. 9

Discussion: Research Prospectuses

 
 

Mon., Apr. 12

Lecture: Class Struggles in the Gilded Age: 1860s-1870s


Wed., Apr. 14

 

Discussion: Sources of Class Consciousness

  • Beckert, The Monied Metropolis, 145-236
  • Laurie, Artisans into Workers, 113-140

Fri., Apr. 16

Field trip to Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor
(depart at noon from Mudd parking lot; back by 5 p.m.)

Mon., Apr. 19

Haymarket Riot, 1886

Lecture: Class Struggles in the Gilded Age, 1870s-1880s

Wed., Apr. 21

Video: The Richest Man in the World, part 1

Fri., Apr. 23

Discussion: Dynamics of Confrontation

  • Beckert, The Monied Metropolis, 237-92
  • Laurie, Artisans into Workers, 141-75
  • Krause, The Battle of Homestead, xiii-xiv, 3-11, 79-201

 
 
 

Mon., Apr. 26

Lecture: Class Struggles in the Gilded Age, 1880s-1890s

Wed., Apr. 28



Andrew Carnegie

Video: The Richest Man in the World, part 2

Fri., Apr. 30

Discussion: Andrew Carnegie and Homestead

 
 

Mon., May 3

Lecture: The Political Economy of Industrial America

Wed., May 5



Machinery Hall,
Chicago World's Fair, 1893

Discussion: Looking Backwards and Forwards

  • Bellamy, Looking Backwards, entire
  • Alan Trachtenburg, "Competing Visions for the Future," in Kornblith, ed., Industrial Revolution in America, 180-89

 

Fri., May 7

Student Presentations: Fourness, Saxbe, Koplow, Strickler
 
 

Mon., May 10

Student Presentations: Paynter, Steinberg, Ramsey-Eliot, Silakoski

Wed., May 12

Student Presentations: McFarland, Dyankov, Tinkelman, Gropp

Fri., May 14

Student Presentations: Gillam, Cooper, Treanor, Ladd
Research Papers due
Thur., May 20 Final Essay due