HIS 102 WEEK 6: INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
Reading Assignment for the week:
- Read the appropriate chapter in the
textbook (chapter 21 in the 7th or 6th ed. of Perry).
- Read Dickens, Hard Times (You
may wish to participate in an Online Discussion of this reading.).
-
Listen to some further information about the Industrial Revolution
as a Realaudio file
or as a wav file. You can also read the information as
a txt file.
Questions to
Consider while studying this week's material:
- Why did the Industrial Revolution
begin in England?
- How did industrial production
change Western society?
Key Terms to study
while reading the textbook:
- James Watt
- Urbanization
- Industrial Revolution
- Machine
Suggested Websites for further study:
- For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a
relevant website for this unit of the course. Send the title of the site, the url and a
brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to
the material being studied this week.
Submit the Dickens Paper:
You are a staff member at an international organization
devoted to protecting the environment. The section of the organization based in
China has become concerned about the rapid economic growth in the country and any
possible environmental consequences. Your manager has decided to compare the
current Chinese situation with other cases of industrialization over the past few
centuries, and she has assigned you to study the case of England. First on your
reading list is Charles Dickens' classic novel, Hard Times. For your case
study, you are to write a one-page paper Describing some of the effects of
industrialization and urbanization on English society in the nineteenth century. You
should use direct material (quotes, evidence) from Hard Times to support your
points.
The paper requires that you gather evidence from a textual
source (Hard Times) to reconstruct the past (task 1), and that you then
interpret that past by analyzing the evidence (task 2). As you read Hard
Times and take notes, you should look for any information
that sheds light on society during the Industrial Revolution, for example,
mention of pollution in Coketown is certainly an important piece of evidence.
Your paper must follow the following format:
- typed using a word processor
(font size 10 or 12 only)
- one-inch margins
- double-spaced
- page number citations for your
quoted evidence
- not to exceed one (1) page--I
will not read beyond one page
- name, date and HIS 102 at
the top left
- must have a brief introduction
and conclusion (each not to exceed two sentences)
-
must follow the specific writing requirements of this course
as explained in
Charlie's History Writing Center.
- You may consider submitting a draft
of your paper to
your instructor for feedback before submitting the paper for a grade. Along
with your draft, please send
three questions that you would like answered about your draft; the questions can
be general (Is my introduction clear?) or specific (Is the phrase, "Gilgamesh was
king," written correctly?). Your instructor will not edit your paper, but will answer your
three questions.
- At times, you may be asked
to rewrite your essay before it is graded. This is done for your own benefit
and will result in an improved grade.
- You may also choose to resubmit
your paper--along with the original--after making the corrections and taking into consideration the
comments noted on the original. This will result in an additional two (2.5)
points being added to your paper grade, if your paper is improved.
Before proceeding, you might wish to read
the short background information and
review the study questions on Dickens.
This assignment should be sent by e-mail according to the Electronic Submission
Information instructions.
You may also wish to post or respond in the
Blackboard online discussion forum
for this assignment. Please review the instructions for
Using the Blackboard
Discussion Forums, if necessary.
The Dickens Paper is worth a maximum of
50 points.
Notes:
An economic transformation that was
equally far-reaching in its effects as the intellectual revolution of the
Enlightenment and the political impact of the French Revolution,
swept across Europe and North America in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. Originating largely in England in the mid-eighteenth century, industrialization
spread to the continent (France, Belgium, Germany and Italy), largely moving eastward
across the continent. Industrialization reached across the Atlantic Ocean to the
United States in the early nineteenth century. The introduction
of mechanical means of production to replace manual means, at first powered
by steam and later by electricity, radically transformed societies and
politics in the Western world. New social classes emerged (the middle and
working classed), accompanied by new political agenda. Industrialization also
allowed a new consumer-oriented economy to be born.
One of the key spurs to industrialization
was the building of the railroads, beginning in the 1840s after the invention
of the steam locomotive. Railroads required iron (later steel), coal and
other materials, and, at the same time, transported these materials to
factories. This proved a great boom to industry. As more and more railroads
were built, more and more industry was required to build the railroads,
and as more and more industry was built, more and more railroads were needed
to supply industry. Thus, a great cycle of industrial and railroad growth
was put in place that fed upon itself and kept industrialization moving
forward.
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