Oklahoma Academic Standard 2. The student will analyze the social, economic and political changes that occurred during the American Industrial Revolution, the Gilded Age, and significant reform movements from the 1870s to the 1920s.

Objective 2.1  Evaluate the transformation of American society, economy and politics during the American Industrial Revolution.

  A. Analyze the impact of capitalism, laissez- faire policy and the role of leading industrialists as robber barons, captains of industry and  philanthropists including John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie and his Gospel of Wealth essay on American society. 

  B. Identify the impact of new inventions and industrial production methods including new technologies by Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, and the Bessemer process. 

In a Nutshell

This objective requires students to evaluate the extent to which the Industrial Revolution transformed our society, economy, and political landscape.  Although many innovations and products made life more convenient for some, many Americans still lived and worked in substandard conditions. While some industrialists exploited labor using unscrupulous practices which would eventually lead to necessary reforms and consumer protection regulations, those same industrialists used portions of their accumulated wealth to provide public services or finance charitable endeavors.

Teacher Action 

Student Action 

• Assist students to evaluate the impact of perspectives, civic virtues, democratic principles, constitutional rights, and human rights on addressing issues and problems in society. 

• Provide students with opportunities to assess the significance and impact of individuals and groups throughout national history, tracing the continuity of past events to the present.  

• Analyze complex and interacting factors that influence multiple perspectives during different historical eras.  

• Develop questions about multiple historical sources to pursue further inquiry and investigate additional sources.  

Key Concepts 

Misconceptions 

• U.S. Steel, Standard Oil, J.P. Morgan 

• vertical and horizontal integration

• Gilded Age 

• philanthropy of industrialists 

• impact of government's laissez- faire policy on economic expansion

• use of wealth by industrialists in the community 

• cause and impact of government regulation on industry 

• Some students might assume that capitalists such as Rockefeller and Carnegie were allowed to acquire wealth without government oversight. While there is some truth to this, the government did attempt to respond to substandard and unsafe working conditions, as well as unfair business practices. 

Instructional Resources