Industrialization and Ideologies 2: The Worker's Plight

Age of Progress: The Workers’ Plight

The author, S.C. Burchell, titled this chapter “The Workers’ Plight”. Now we turn to the lives or workers and how they learned to cope in the new world of industrial capitalism. We will also learn about the steps reformers and governments took to address their poverty.

Reader pages 167-176

Essential Questions for this reading:

• 1. What were the causes of poor living and working conditions for the working class during industrialization?

  2. What groups and institutions pressed for reform in response to these conditions? Were they successful?

  3. How did leaders and philosophers believe the “social crisis” brought on by industrialization could be solved?

     1. Contrast the ideas of Bismarck with those of Marx. Contrast those of Marx and Pope Leo XIII.

     2. Why did Marx’s “proletarian revolution” never occur?

YOUR TASKS: ANNOTATE AND WRITE

TASK 1: For THIS part, you don’t have to answer the questions, only ANNOTATE

Questions to consider as you read (you DO have to mark them in the text as you go—you DON’T have to write out answers to the following questions):

1. What was the “great riddle of the Age of Progress”?

2. How did the composition of society change after the Industrial Revolution?

3. What were conditions like for workers in the early years of industrialization? (168-169)

4. Burchell describes society as “split in two”—in what ways? (169-171)

5. Who were some of the people who tried to create reforms? How did reformers seek to ameliorate the conditions of the poor?

6. What kinds of obstacles stood in the way of workers organizing trade unions?

7. Which country eventually led the world in social reform? Why?

8. What did Marx believe? Why do you think his ideas were so popular among socialists?

9. Describe the challenges to Marx’s style socialism. (175-176)

10. Why do you think that socialism and communism became so appealing for the working population?

TASK 2: WRITE

As you read, you MUST do the following:

· What surprised me?

· Record 3 pieces of evidence or examples that illustrate the chapter theme!

· What is something that the author seems to think I already know?

· What changed, challenged, or confirmed what I already (thought I) knew?

Terms:

Cholera and “white plague” :: Stocks and bonds :: Laissez-faire . :: Free Trade . :: “Natural Laws” . :: Factory Act . :: Robert Owen

Otto von Bismarck . :: Realpolitik . :: Karl Marx Communist Manifesto . :: Pope Leo XIII