The Arrival of Industrial Capitalism and Modernization Analysis

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This essay examines the arrival of industrial capitalism and modernization in the United States during the 19th century, focusing on how ideologies like liberalism, feminism, romanticism, and social Darwinism addressed the resulting societal issues. The transition from an agrarian society to an industrialized economy brought technological advancements, immigration, and the rise of big business. Liberalism facilitated fair trade and social mobility, while romanticism fostered a unique American literary identity. Feminism challenged gender inequalities, and social Darwinism promoted competition and societal fitness, although it also led to social disparities. The essay concludes that these ideologies played a crucial role in navigating the challenges and opportunities presented by industrial capitalism and modernization.
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Running head: ARRIVAL OF INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM AND MODERNIZATION
Arrival of Industrial Capitalism and Modernization
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1ARRIVAL OF INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM AND MODERNIZATION
Industrial capitalism is the trade system which includes economic and social
trends, where the industry and the capital are controlled for profit. Modernization is the phase
where the old process is changed and implications of new methods, techniques and phases with
the help of technology. The purpose to write the essay is to throw light on identifying the
solutions of the issues of the advent of industrial capitalism and modernization with the help of
liberalism, feminism, romanticism and social Darwinism.
In United States agriculture was the primary livelihood for almost 90% of the population.
Most of the employments were the small scale farmers and textile workers. In the late 19th
century, United States underwent a huge change or transformation with upcoming of latest
technological innovation (Hareven & Vinovskis, 2015). It also affected the farmers as such the
railroads offered attractive packages to the immigrants especially the Europeans and Germans.
They were attracted by the good soil with low priced lands from the railroad companies. For
these purpose the railroad needed settlers and settlers needed farmland. These changes brought
up matured industrial economy with rapid establishment of big business, development of large
scale agriculture.
Liberalism refers to the political movement during the changing period of the world.
Liberalism simply rejects the prevailing social and political norms that give rise to monarchy or
hereditary privilege (Kloppenberg, 2016). The act of liberalism helps the community to choose
the work according to their based needs and earn their livelihood. It made them stand against the
changes with respective to the skills and the change brought up by the modernization and
industrial. This resulted in the shift of population from lower classes to upper classes. This
period enabled the transactions of fair trade and integrated corporate finances revolutionizing
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2ARRIVAL OF INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM AND MODERNIZATION
capitalism (Sawyer, 2018). It gave rise to entrepreneurs, movement of people from rural to urban
and change in their lifestyle.
Romanticism is the period of literature, musical, cultural and artistic movements that
mostly originated in Europe at the end of the 18th century. This era saw many changes with the
help of technology, academic classicism and the immigrants who evolved in United States
building self confidence and different national identity in the form of literary nationalist. This
literary nationalist helped to distinguish a unique American literary style from the British
literature. The romanticism emphasized emotion, personality and individualism over rationalism
and breaking the constraints of the religion (Steele, 2016). It resulted to break away the
restrictions of the strict traditions.
Feminism is considered as the political movement and the social movement that creates
rejection on the belief that one gender should be raised above another instead pushed the effort to
establish and achieve political and social equality of sexes (Evans, 2018). This thought brought
up changes in the mind of many people which later lead to the equality in the gender in various
fields even in the work. That period lead to the rise of female writers and authors in the field of
literature. Many a time, feminism was associated with racism as it pointed out the differences of
the sexes. The act also brought modernization in the sex role attitudes with the context of several
women’s right movements.
Social Darwinism is a term that refers to the variety of thinking and theories that emerged
in the mid 19th century and application of evolutionary concept of natural to human society
(Alaimo, 2016). Social Darwinist people had different views on the groups as which are stronger
and which are comparably less strong. This philosophy brought negative as well as positive
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3ARRIVAL OF INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM AND MODERNIZATION
impact on the Americans. It resulted into ignorance of the poor’s by the rich people on the other
hand it raised the competition to become the suitable and fittest for the society which removed
status barriers from the society. The social groups were highly indulged with high level society
which mostly consisted of the businessmen but in turn the modernization raised the standards of
the farmers with technological help.
From the above discourse, it can be concluded that liberalism, feminism, romanticism
and the theory of social Darwinism helped to cope with the problems that are adversely to affect
the society after the changes of industrial capitalism and modernization brought up by the new
time. Liberalism helped to establish liberty and equality among the people and the change in the
thinking of the people with feminism influence. The romanticism era in return confronted and
provoked the writers to write and create a unique American literature.
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Reference
Alaimo, S. (2016). Exposed: Environmental politics and pleasures in posthuman times.
University of Minnesota Press.
Evans, S. M. (2018). Generations Later, Retelling the Story. In The Legacy of Second-Wave
Feminism in American Politics(pp. 21-40). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Hareven, T. K., & Vinovskis, M. A. (Eds.). (2015). Family and population in 19th century
America. Princeton University Press.
Kloppenberg, J. T. (2016). Toward democracy: The struggle for self-rule in European and
American Thought. Oxford University Press.
Sawyer, L. P. (2018). American Fair Trade: Proprietary Capitalism, Corporatism, and the'New
Competition,'1890–1940. Cambridge University Press.
Steele, J. (2016). Unfolding the mind: the unconscious in American romanticism and literary
theory. Routledge.
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