Enduring Understandings
- Agricultural changes, the factory system, and steam power sparked the Industrial Revolution.
- Effects of industrialization included rapid urbanization and the rise of a new middle class.
- Early working conditions in factories and mines were harsh, but later improved.
- Laissez-faire economists like Adam Smith favored free enterprise and limited government control, while Karl Marx called for workers to control means of production.
- In the second Industrial Revolution, technology revolutionized production, transportation, and communication.
- Differing responses to industrial society led to new artistic movements.
Watch the My Story Video
to share the experiences of a worker in an early 19th century textile mill.