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Workers’ Party was established in 1880 to provide an alternative to the more gradual path to socialism favored
by the FSWF. The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, established in 1898, united many smaller socialist
organizations. The Socialist Revolutionary Party, which engaged in the assassination of government officials,
formed in Russia in 1902. It ignored Marx’s emphasis on industrial workers and sought to organize peasants
as well. Most Russian socialist groups that took a more orthodox Marxist approach became members of the
Russian Social Democratic Labor Party when it formed in 1898. The Bolshevik faction of this party, which
advocated revolution, gained control of the Russian government in 1917.
Another source of conflict among socialists was the role to be played by government in the construction of the
ideal socialist state. Although Marx wrote of government eventually disappearing once class divisions had
been erased and equality achieved, he also indicated that, until then, a government of the workers would be
needed to manage society. Some socialists feared the existence of this new government would simply lead to
the creation of a new group of authorities to oppress the people. They believed government should be
abolished, an ideology known as anarchism. One of the foremost anarchists of the nineteenth century was
Mikhail Bakunin, a Russian revolutionary. Bakunin joined the IWA in 1868. However, he clashed with Marx
over the role government should play in bringing about socialism. In 1872, at the Fifth Congress of the IWA, his
disagreement with Marx led to his expulsion from the group.
Business owners and members of the middle and upper classes in general disapproved of and feared socialist
and anarchist movements. They believed business owners performed a valuable service by providing goods
and services at reasonable prices, making the economy prosper, and keeping their countries strong and
competitive. They were thus entitled to earn what they believed was a fair profit for assuming the financial
risks of engaging in business. To do that while keeping prices low, they could not pay wages as high as their
employees would have liked.
Opponents of socialism and anarchism argued further that workers were free to accept the terms of
employment or leave if not satisfied. If business owners were not allowed to earn a profit, they would not take
the financial risks on which the economy depended. If people were not allowed to accumulate private property,
they would lack the incentive to work. Violence and the destruction of property benefited no one. Workers
would be better served by striving to improve their position and that of their children through education and
the habits of thrift and self-discipline than by listening to the promises of demagogues who preached disloyalty
to employers and spun utopian fantasies of workers’ paradises.
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Key Terms
anarchism an ideology advocating that government be abolished
contract labor a system in which people sign contracts promising to perform work in exchange for a fee
debt bondage a system in which a person who owes money works (or provides someone else to work) for the
creditor until the debt has been repaid
demographic transition a reduction in family size in the late 1800s caused by falling birth rates in
industrialized nations
labor union an association that organizes workers of all kinds, both skilled and unskilled
naturalism a literary style that emphasized realistic, detached, impersonal depictions of characters whose
actions were molded by their environment in ways they often had no ability to control
penal labor forced labor assigned as punishment to those convicted of crimes
pogroms violent attacks on Jewish people in the Russian empire
real wages wages measured in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be purchased with them
realism a literary and artistic style that realistically depicted everyday life in the contemporary world
romanticism an artistic movement formed in response to the Industrial Revolution that prized emotion and
imagination and took as its subjects the themes of nature, the ordinary person, the exotic, the ancient, and
the supernatural
social democrat people who favor the creation of a socialist society through democratic means
Taylorism a system of management that sought to improve workers’ productivity by curbing wasteful
movements
trade union an association that organizes workers in a particular craft or industry
Section Summary
10.1 Inventions, Innovations, and Mechanization
During the Second Industrial Revolution, life in industrialized nations changed dramatically. The electrified,
mechanized workplace meant long hours and low wages for unskilled factory workers. Work was often
dangerous and unemployment precarious. Nevertheless, industrialization did bring benefits. Mass-produced
consumer goods were priced so that by the end of the nineteenth century, members of the working class could
afford to purchase less-expensive versions of items that had once been available only to the middle and
wealthy classes. The mechanization of agriculture and the development of refrigerated railroad cars made
food more available and less expensive. Improved sanitation and medical advances reduced infant mortality
and increased adults’ life expectancies. Important demographic changes took place at the same time. By the
end of the nineteenth century, both middle-class and working-class families were having fewer children as
laws restricting child labor and mandating education made it more difficult to employ children.
10.2 Life in the Industrial City
By the end of the nineteenth century, cities in industrialized nations were filled with people in search of work.
These cities offered many benefits. For those who preferred high culture, plays, concerts, operas, and ballets
were regularly staged. Music halls, arcades, and burlesque shows catered to the popular taste, as did
amusement parks. Libraries and parks were open to everyone. Department stores gave people the opportunity
to buy the latest fashions—or to dream about them through the window.
There were negative aspects to city life as well. Housing, especially for immigrants and the working class, was
usually overcrowded, and rooms often lacked fresh air and sunlight. Both the water and the air in industrial
cities were polluted, and infectious diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis were common. Poverty drove
many to drink, and some women resorted to prostitution to survive. The literature and art produced by
romantics, realists, and naturalists depicted all aspects of life in the industrial age.
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10.3 Coerced and Semicoerced Labor
Although working-class people in industrialized nations had limited choices about the place and terms of their
employment, many other workers did not have even this small degree of freedom. Slavery continued into the
second half of the nineteenth century in the United States and Brazil, as did serfdom in Russia. In other forms
of unfree labor, contract laborers and indentured servants performed agricultural and other work on every one
of the six inhabited continents. Debt bondage also trapped many people, including African American
sharecroppers in the United States and female textile workers in Japan. Prisoners were also often sentenced to
perform labor as part of their punishment. These systems of coerced and semicoerced labor remained intact
throughout the nineteenth century in various parts of the world.
10.4 Communities in Diaspora
Witnessed in the second half of the nineteenth century was the migration of large numbers of people fleeing
poverty, violence, and natural disaster. Europeans emigrated to North and South America, Australia, New
Zealand, and South Africa. Asians traveled to western Europe, the Americas, and Africa. Immigrants
performed largely low-paid, physically demanding work on plantationsand railroads and in factories. Non-
European immigrants also faced racism in societies dominated by Europeans. Some countries attempted to
restrict the immigration of particular groups. The United States, Canada, and Australia took steps to prohibit
Asian migration. The United States also sought to limit immigration from southern and eastern Europe.
10.5 Regulation, Reform, and Revolutionary Ideologies
Attempts to solve the problems caused by industrialization and urbanization took a variety of forms. Some
governments passed laws to abolish child labor, provide insurance for workers, ensure safe housing, prevent
air and water pollution, and regulate prostitution. Middle-class reformers sought to improve society by altering
personal behavior. They stressed the importance of morality and often attempted to restrict or prohibit the
consumption of alcohol. Many also advocated for women’s rights. Members of the working class tried to better
their lives by forming unions to force employers to reduce their hours, raise their wages, and provide safer
working conditions. Many also turned to politics as a way to protect their interests. Influenced by the ideology
of socialism, which theorized that the destruction of capitalism was the solution to social ills, they joined social
democratic parties that organized unions and forced governments to pass legislation to protect workers. Other
socialists advocated the violent overthrow of the ruling elites, as did some anarchists.
Assessments
Review Questions
1. What was the goal of scientific management?
a. to increase workers’ efficiency
b. to raise workers’ pay
c. to make factories safer
d. to shorten the workday
2. How did assembly lines affect workers?
a. They made workdays shorter.
b. They provided greater protection from injury.
c. They made jobs boring and repetitious.
d. They lowered pay.
3. What was an important result of electrifying the workplace?
a. It made jobs more dangerous by exposing workers to electrical currents.
b. It enabled factories to stay open later and people to work at night.
c. It provided better heating in the winter.
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d. It reduced the strength needed to perform certain tasks, creating more jobs for children.
4. How did married working-class women in western Europe commonly supplement the family’s income in
the late nineteenth century?
a. They did piecework at home.
b. They worked in mines.
c. They taught school.
d. They gave music lessons.
5. To what nineteenth-century event does the term “demographic transition” refer?
a. the disappearance of skilled crafts
b. the decrease in the age of first marriage
c. the decrease in family size
d. the movement from rural areas to cities
6. What was an important medical innovation of the late nineteenth century?
a. the smallpox vaccine
b. x-rays
c. CAT scans
d. the stethoscope
7. Which artistic style features impersonal depictions of characters compelled to behave in ways over which
they have no control?
a. romanticism
b. realism
c. impressionism
d. naturalism
8. What was the Great Stink?
a. a stench coming from the polluted River Thames that nearly disrupted British government
b. the name given to the poorest neighborhood in Chicago
c. a nickname that city dwellers gave to peasants recently arrived from the countryside
d. a nickname for the Paris sewer system
9. What common disease of the period was caused by contaminated water?
a. tuberculosis
b. asthma
c. cholera
d. syphilis
10. What innovation made nineteenth-century cities cleaner?
a. streetlights
b. electric streetcars
c. outhouses
d. public water fountains
11. What were Selfridge’s, Le Bon Marché, and Matsuzakaya?
a. famous saloons
b. urban department stores
c. company towns built for miners
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d. newspapers
12. Which artistic and literary movement glorified nature, common people, exotic places, and the historical
past?
a. romanticism
b. modernism
c. naturalism
d. classicism
13. What was a common way in which contract laborers could fall into debt bondage?
a. renting a home in a nearby city
b. buying goods at a store owned by the employer
c. borrowing money from a friend
d. running away
14. What was the katorga system?
a. a form of penal servitude in which criminals were sent to labor camps in Siberia
b. a form of debt bondage used in Brazil
c. a British system of contracting for passage to another country in exchange for labor
d. the practice in French brothels of charging prostitutes for food and clothing so they always remained
in debt
15. What was the primary reason contract laborers were taken to Hawaii?
a. build railroads
b. grow sugarcane
c. work in salt mines
d. fish for abalone
16. Which country pressured others to end the slave trade?
a. Canada
b. the United States
c. Britain
d. Germany
17. Other than criminals, what kinds of people often ended up in the Russian katorga?
a. debtors
b. alcoholics
c. political prisoners
d. unfaithful partners
18. What was a negative result of the abolition of Russian serfdom?
a. Domestic serfs received no land and no longer had a place to live.
b. Serfs were required to leave the farms on which they had always lived.
c. Serfs were no longer entitled to food and clothing from their employer.
d. Serfs were no longer protected from arrest by their employers when they committed crimes.
19. Why did Brazil attempt to attract European immigrants in the second half of the nineteenth century?
a. to make its population more White
b. to employ them in factories
c. to employ them in mines
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	Chapter 10 Life and Labor in the Industrial World
	Key Terms
	Section Summary
	Assessments