The Working Class and Labor Movement in United States by Liris LopezGomez

The Working Class

103981_5 — 2025-06-29 23:00:14 UTC

- Who: The working class primarily consisted of factory workers, miners, and laborers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- What: A social class that emerged due to industrialization, characterized by low wages and poor working conditions.
- Where: Urban areas across the United States, particularly in industrial cities like Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Detroit.
- When: The working class began to form in the late 1800s, peaking during the Progressive Era (1890s-1920s).
- Why: Industrialization created a demand for labor, leading to the growth of factories and a shift from agrarian to industrial economies.
- How: The working class organized to demand better wages, hours, and working conditions, leading to the formation of labor unions.

The New Consumer Culture

103981_5 — 2025-06-29 23:10:17 UTC

- Who: Middle and working-class Americans.
- What: A shift towards consumerism characterized by increased purchasing of goods and services.
- Where: Nationwide, particularly in urban centers.
- When: Late 19th century into the early 20th century.
- Why: Mass production and advertising made goods more accessible and affordable.
- How: The rise of department stores, mail-order catalogs, and advertising campaigns.

103981_5 — 2025-06-29 23:20:44 UTC

Panic of 1873 was an economic collapse that was global in nature that started from an economic crisis that took place in the United States and Europe. It started off with the failure of the banking company Jay Cooke & Company, which had invested massive sums of money in railroad building, and was further fueled by overspeculation and overexpansion in railroads.

Impact on Society

103981_5 — 2025-06-29 23:22:37 UTC

The Panic of 1873 highlighted the vulnerabilities of the economy and led to increased calls for labor rights and reforms.

Scientific Management

103981_5 — 2025-06-29 23:27:15 UTC

Knights of Labor

103981_5 — 2025-06-29 23:39:30 UTC

The Knights of Labor was a late 19th-century American mass labor movement with open membership and ambitious designs for economic and social change. Organized in 1869 as an effort at organizing all workers, both skilled and unskilled, male and female, black and white, to struggle for the eight-hour day, the abolition of child labor, and the creation of worker-owned cooperatives. But from 1886, the influence of the organization declined, partially due to the Haymarket Affair and the rise of the AFL.

Fun fact

103981_5 — 2025-06-29 23:53:13 UTC

AFL originally concentrated on the skilled workers but subsequently extended its cover to encompass the unskilled workers, which subsequently transformed into the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) during the 1930s.

Fun fact

103981_5 — 2025-06-29 23:54:38 UTC

Knights of Labor originally welcomed women and African Americans as members, thereby opening up the labor movement.

Fun fact

103981_5 — 2025-06-29 23:55:32 UTC

Father of scientific management Frederick Winslow Taylor was "the man who made the world work" because his concepts were emulated everywhere in the world and affected businesses broader than manufacturing, broader than manufacturing, broader than he himself affected.

Fun fact

103981_5 — 2025-06-29 23:56:09 UTC

The Panic of 1873 itself was referred to as the "Great Depression" in America years before the more famous Great Depression of the 1930s.

Fun fact

103981_5 — 2025-06-29 23:56:42 UTC

Bon Marché, the first department store in the world, opened in Paris in 1852 and led the way for such stores to be heard of in America, Macy's and Marshall Field's among them.

Fun fact

103981_5 — 2025-06-29 23:57:12 UTC

Adjectivally, "working class" was first used in the 19th century, but medieval was named when workers were sometimes referred to as "the commons."

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

103981_5 — 2025-06-30 00:05:48 UTC

- Who: Samuel Gompers and skilled laborers.
- What: A national federation of labor unions.
- Where: United States.
- When: Founded in 1886.
- Why: To organize skilled workers and improve their conditions.
- How: By focusing on collective bargaining and strikes.

103981_5 — 2025-06-30 00:10:37 UTC