Industrial Revolution: Definition and Inventions (Video)

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The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclopes), 1873-1875. Artist: Menzel, Adolph Friedrich, von (1815-1905) Berlin.

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Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution of the 1800s, a time of great growth in technologies and inventions, transformed rural societies into industrialized, urban ones.

Child Labor in the United States The Puritan work ethic of the 13 colonies and their founders valued hard work over idleness, and this ethos applied to children as well. Through the first half of the 1800s, child labor was an essential part of the agricultural and handicraft economy of the United States. Children worked […]

Homestead Strike

In July 1892, a dispute between Carnegie Steel and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers exploded into violence at a steel plant owned by Andrew Carnegie in Homestead, Pennsylvania. In what would be one of the deadliest labor-management conflicts in the nation’s history, some 12 people were killed when striking workers attacked 300 […]

Socialism

How Socialism Emerged The intellectual roots of socialism go back at least as far as ancient Greek times, when the philosopher Plato depicted a type of collective society in his dialog, Republic (360 B.C.). In 16th-century England, Thomas More drew on Platonic ideals for his Utopia, an imaginary island where money has been abolished and […]

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View of the lower Manhattan, as seen from the Manhattan Bridge, New York, New York, 1910.

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How the Industrial Revolution Fueled the Growth of Cities

The rise of mills and factories drew an influx of people to cities—and placed new demand on urban infrastructures.

8 Inventions from the Second Industrial Revolution That Transformed Life

8 Groundbreaking Inventions from the Second Industrial Revolution

The period between the late 1800s and the early 1900s saw a boom in innovations that would take the world by storm.

7 Negative Effects of the Industrial Revolution

While the Industrial Revolution generated new opportunities and economic growth, it also introduced pollution and acute hardships for workers.

The Original Luddites Raged Against the Machine of the Industrial Revolution

Uprisings against a new economic structure imposed by the Industrial Revolution gave rise to the insult “luddite.”

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2:32 minTV-14

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The Industrial Revolution

Beginning in the 19th century, advances in manufacturing revolutionize the American way of life.

1:56 minTV-PG

Child Labor

Historian Yohuru Williams gives a rundown of important facts on child labor in the time of the Industrial Revolution.

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3:37 minTV-PG

Centralization of Money

In 1838, U.S. Mint branches were opened across the country to fulfill the need for a centralized system of monetary exchange.

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2:16 minTV-PG

The Origins of Summer Camps

Did summer camp save kids from factories? Learn about the unlikely history behind modern summer camps.

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