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American Studies 100
Monday, April 5, 1999
Announcements: No Discussion Sections This
Week
Lecture notes:
National Expansion:
The Machine and the City
I. Benchmarks, 1800 - 1850
A.
Population: From 1800 - 1850 the U.S. population grew 4 times faster
than Europe's, and 6 times faster
than the world average. The population doubles every 23 years.
Increased population due to immigration,
slavery, childbirth, and longer life expectancy.
B.
Economy/Transprotation
1. Pre - 1815: Transatlantic trade exceeds internal
2. Post - 1815: GNP doubles every 15 years
3. 1850: 9,000 railroad lines; 21,000 in the next ten years;
by 1860, U.S. has larger railroad network than
the rest of the world combined.
C.
Cultural Revolution
1. Growth of Mass Media, information mass media
a. Telegraphs
b. Newspapers
II. Civil War to 1900: Rate of Change
Escalates
A.
Population
1. 1860 - 32 million (4 million enslaved)
2. 1900 - 80 million
B.
Economy: John Jacob Astor leaves 20 million dollars when he dies,
Andrew Carnegie makes an annual
income of 25 million
C.
Industrialization: By 1870, the U.S. experiences the most rapid rate
of industrialization the world has ever known;
by 1900, the U.S. is the worlds leading industrial nation leading in production
of food and raw materials; overtakes
Germany and Great Britain in manufacturing
D.
Tremendous Cultural Change
1. "Death" of the Jeffersonian Ideal
2. Rhythms of life shift form natural to machine
3. Each area of the U.S. was defined and relied on each other
a) New England: Manufacturing
b) West: Food Production
c) South: Raw Materials
4. Rural to urban lifestyle; from agriculture to manufacture
Benjamin Franklin ~ The
Autobiography
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Franklin rose in social scale more than anyone in
his time period
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Attributes rise to many things
- Education
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Ambition
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Aspirations
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Hard work
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Autobiography offers his life as a model life, self-improvement,
refashioning
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"The first planner"
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Ideas
- People
have the ability to become who they want to be
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Take fate into own hands and decide who you will be
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The potential of the Middle class
~ Can rise because of certain characteristics
~ "rags to riches" idea; "pluck to luck"
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" It's in everyone's Interest to be virtuous, who wished to be happy even
in this World"
- Temperance
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Silence
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Order
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Resolution
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Frugality
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Industry
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Sincerity
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Justice
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Moderation
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Cleanliness
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Tranquility
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Chastity
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Humility
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Values from a moral realm than a from a religious realm
~ Thought that religion separated man, rather than bringing them together
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Is his idea of values to be good in order to get ahead or is it be good
just to be good??
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Analogy: The idea of shaping a life is like
writing a novel
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