COMMUNITIES AND INDUSTRIALIZATION

John G. Ramsay

New York, NY

The study packets I am assembling will focus on four towns experiencing the throes of industrialization. The four towns, Lowell, Ma., Rockdale, Pa., New Harmony, Ind. and Muncie, Ind. experienced industrialization at different times and under different circumstances, and my aim, in part, is to show the variety of ways machine technology created opportunities and problems. In American Myth, American Reality, James Robertson has written, "The predominant symbol, metaphor, and model for the logic of real community in America remains the rural agrarian small town." (p.223) My hope is that the packets will capture the excitement and conflicts of real communities as they made their peace with modern technology.

Part of each packet will be biographical. It is impossible to make sense of these towns without understanding the aspirations and ideologies of their movers and shakers: Francis Cabot Lowell, John Price Crozer, and Robert Owen, to name a few. The materials will depict these industrialists as they saw themselves, and as their most vocal critics saw them. Emphasis will be placed on their assumptions about an ideal community and on their most intractable problems. In particular, students will be asked to describe the various and shifting notions of Christian stewardship held by these men.

Each packet will contain different kinds of demographic data on the industrial workers of these towns. For example, Thomas Dublin has shown that wages for experienced women workers at Lowell's Hamilton Company declined from $.74 a day to $.61 a day between 1836 and 1860. What are some of the possible explanations for this decline in wages? What does Dublin mean by the "proletarianization of the female work force"?

These case studies will include drawings and pictures so that students will be able to understand the machines and work processes, which transformed the lives of workers. Anthony Wallace is particularly adept at describing the "labor-saving" innovations in Rockdale's spinning and weaving industries. (p.188-200) The Lynds provide a vivid picture of the Owens bottle-blowing machine, and its implications for the highly skilled bottle blowers of the 1890s.

An important part of the story of industrialization in the United States is the transition from traditional family firms to corporate capitalism. The packets will provide materials on the managerial practices of the family firms in Rockdale, and the incipient managerial revolution at work in Muncie. The peculiar managerial practices and failures of Robert Owen will be used to raise questions about the inherent conflicts between managerial efficiency and democratic procedures.

Finally each packet will contain information on the cultural and recreational lives of community members. Students will be asked to explore the changing relationships between work and leisure at work in these towns. The introduction of the car into the horse and buggy culture of Muncie is an obvious example, but the lyceums of Lowell and the famed dances of New Harmony will deserve scrutiny, too.

Each packet will allow different students to grab hold of this important historical process at a comfortable point. Some students will be most intrigued by the biographies and comparisons among them. Students with an aptitude in math may want to work exclusively with the demographic data, and chart changes within the towns. Students adept at hands-on projects may want to make models of the machines, or draw diagrams of the work processes. Students captivated by the larger issues can have a formal debate on the larger quality of life issues at stake.