The Industrial Revolution is thought to have improved the material standard of living for most people in Britain (by lowering the cost of basic staples like food and clothing and raising wages) when compared to pre-industrial Britain when most people worked in agriculture and made the majority of the products they used themselves often at great cost in terms of time and labor.
In lowering the cost of basic products through more efficient mass production, the Industrial Revolution also created a life for workers both inside and outside the mills and factories that Orwell describes in his book as miserable.
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Civilization 1/2 Assessment Rubric: Critical Thinking, Writing, & Discipline-Specific Knowledge
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4
3
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0
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supportable statement, claim,
statement, claim, conclusion or
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conclusion or hypothesis about the hypothesis about the prompt; thesis indirectly related–while still
prompt; thesis has a specific focus. may lack development, focus and/or appropriate–to the prompt.
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provide sufficient and specific
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knowledge of relevant history
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Accurate supporting examples (2-3) No attempt to use appropriate sources
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issue /contexts omitted. Essay
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betweeen historical issues/contexts
and author’s analysis of the topic.
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analysis uses multiple points of
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used only as support, not in place of
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Ability
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appropriate historical and literary
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breaks prompt/topic into some of its
most relevant questions /
components with adequate
discussion of each part; analysis
uses at least pro/con perspectives
demonstrating a bi-dimensional
understanding of the prompt/ topic.
Minimal use of description/
summary in place of analysis.
Understandable, organized essay
conveys its meaning in clearly
written and appropriate standard
English with few usage errors.
Appropriate historical and literary
terminology may be incomplete or
inaccurate.
Appropriate analysis but flawed,
No analysis or prompt/topic; narrative is
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unrelated or only marginally to
prompt/topic into at least one
topic/prompt.
relevant component and/or has
inadequate discussion of any parts;
evinces a uni-dimensional
understanding of prompt/topic;
tends to describe / summarize more
than analyze.
rev 7/4/19
Understandable essay conveys its
meaning with some difficulty
caused by unclear organization
and/or frequent usage errors.
Language use consistently impedes
meaning due to significant usage errors
and/or lack of organization.
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CHAPTER 18: THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
PRODUCTION
BEFORE 1750
o Most Europeans where
agricultural generalists, not
specialists: most products
made by hand in one’s own
home
o Time-intensive, laborintensive
o Inefficient production:
required 8 people working
12 hours a day to feed and
clothe 10 people
o Comparatively low levels of
output, slow economic
growth
PRODUCTION
AFTER 1750
o Spinning jenny, created in
1764, allowed a machine with
many spindles of thread to be
spun at one time.
o In 1750, it took 200 workers to
make a given amount of cloth
o By 1810, it only took 12
workers to make the same
amount of cloth
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION—THE
BEGINNING
o Britain enters Industrial Revolution as an agricultural economy
o Starts in Britain with the implementation of machine powered mass production
o Begins 50 years before spreading to the rest of Europe, U.S.
o Industrial Revolution is associated with both an explosion of economic output, increasing
material standard of living alongside the largescale introduction of mindless, backbreaking
industrial work
o Products became more affordable for everyone because of mass production but coal
mines, factory assembly lines, dehumanized people as the work required was miserable,
repetitive, dangerous and did not require the use of one’s mind
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION—ENABLING
FACTORS
o The English colonies: A surge in raw materials from the New Worlds—like cotton—served as vital
inputs in the industrial production process in Britain.
o England would import cotton from American South, mass produce clothes, then export it
back to America and the rest of Europe
o England developed an the most advanced infrastructure in Europe—roads, bridges, railroads—
transportation systems for moving the mass production
o Napoleon and other European governments promoted free markets over mercantilist systems,
allowing for the free flow of capital to move across the continent and capital markets to develop
o Stock markets began to form
o Larger networks of banks financed by increasing efficient commercial lending
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION—ENABLING
FACTORS
o Mutually reinforcing feedback loop: growth in population in England created greater need for clothing and an
ever-cheaper labor force, but mass production of textiles meant cost of clothes fell by so much that the
average family went from making their own clothes to buying clothes, so industrialization enabled UK
population to grow by making everything—like food and clothing—significantly cheaper
o 1780 → 8 million people
o 1850 → 18 million people
o 1880 → 26 million people
o Industrialization raised, not lowered, the average person’s material standard of living by allowing them to
consume more products at lower cost
o While guilds (cartels) were still influential in Europe, they were less so in England, allowing pure supply and
demand forces to control production
o Free market culture of Adam Smith was strongest in England—property rights, IP protections encouraged a
free flow of capital to rush into British economy
WHAT WAS ENGLAND
PRODUCING?
o Textiles
o Coal Mining
o Copper Mining
o Tin Mining
o Lead Mining
o Iron Smelting
o Ship-building
EFFICIENCY
COMES AT A
COST
But there were social
tradeoffs involved in
industrial production:
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=6As8AIbKK5Q
INDUSTRIALIZATION’S SOCIAL
PROBLEMS
o Surging income inequality
o Miserable working conditions
o No laws establishing workplace safety. Average day lasted 12 hours, average week was 6 days
o Read pg. 685 of our book for a description of this kind of work
o Living conditions squalid as people move to cities and cities struggle to accommodate influx of new
people with limited housing opportunities
o Public health problems developed in cramped living conditions caused by poor sanitation/public
infrastructure
o The Revolution’s thirst for cheap labor created issues around the use of children labor.
o The Revolution’s rise was so sudden that laws to protect vulnerable groups weren’t established
yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOIvdhmMaOE
INDUSTRIALIZATION—GOOD OR BAD?
o Industrial production enabled significant improvements in material standard of living, creating a robust
middle class because it allowed the average British person to afford more products by making the price of
those products cheaper
o Same issues today in China → working conditions of workers are poor by western standards
o Specialization often means mind-numbing work
o Yet no one was forced to work in the factories or mines in Britain or in China today
o They did so voluntarily because they saw it as a way to improve their material prosperity
o Children were already working in pre-industrial revolution, agricultural England. They were just working the
land as agricultural laborers, not factory workers
o Many children were permanently disfigured from working in mines and factories
o But some were able to collect public disability benefits for their injuries. Children were able to collect
payments for being unemployed later in life only possible because of the economic growth the Industrial
Revolution created. A poorer society would not have been able to afford robust social programs like
disability insurance, unemployment etc.
LABOR PROTECTIONS POST
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The Factory Acts of 1833 (UK): Applied to the mills
o Capped working hours at 12 hours a day
o Children were not allowed to work overnight
o Children were required to attend school at least 2 hours a day
o No child under the age of 9 allowed to work in the mills
The Mines Act of 1842 (UK):
o No children under the age of 10-years-old nor women allowed to work
underground in the coal mines
o Initially this made many women in the UK upset as they lost their jobs
LABOR PROTECTIONS POST
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The Factory Acts of 1844—1856 (UK):
o Created to help the mill workers even more. This reduced the allowable
working hours for children ages nine to thirteen even more while requiring
increasing mandatory time spent in school for children
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (U.S.A.):
o Placed some limitations on child labor, set a minimum wage, and put limits on
how many hours an employee should work
o Children under sixteen cannot work in manufacturing or mining, or during
school hours