APUSH People of Industrialization

Edward Bellamy

Bellamy was a socialist and a writer; Looking Backwards, his most famous work, is a utopian novel set in the year 2000. The novel is about a thoroughly socialist society where all the evils of the world cease to exist and everyone works together in perfect harmony. His writing influenced the formation of many "Nationalist Clubs," or societies who wanted to turn his political ideas into a practical reality.

Henry Bessemer

Bessemer was the English engineer and inventor who invented and patented the Bessemer process, a cheap way to mass-produce steel. His process made railroads more reliable, as steel is stronger than iron, the metal used before. His process was also used to make guns.

Will Keith Kellogg

Kellogg created the Kellogg Cereal company. He specialized in healthy breakfast cereals, especially corn flakes, and he put prizes and toys in his cereal boxes as a marketing method. He was a great philanthropist as well, and a believer in nutrition labels.

Lester Ward

Lester Ward was a sociologist who wrote Dynamic Sociology in 1883. He argued against social darwinism and the concept of "survival of the fittest," proposing instead that collaboration under government control was a better idea.

Andrew Carnegie

Carnegie was a "steel tycoon" and a self-made man who went from working in a factory to being one of the wealthiest people in America. He had little formal education, but he invested in the steel industry while he was working for wages. He made the mass-production of steel easier and more efficient by cutting out middlemen and owning everything pertaining to all steps of the steel-creation process. His company, the Carnegie Steel Corporation, was the largest of its kind in the world. He sold his company, however, to focus more on his philanthropic desires, i.e. building libraries, universities, and helping others through time, labor, and donations. He believed in the "gospel of wealth," and he published a book on the matter.

Eugene Debs

Debs was the founder of the American railway union and the Industrial Workers of the World. He was an avid advocate for socialism, and he ran for President of the United States through the Socialist Party of America. He was sent to prison, but he still maintained his influence as one of the best-known socialists; he ran for President in 1920 while still in a prison cell.

James Buchanan Duke

Duke owned the American Tobacco Company, a monopoly in the U.S. cigarette market. He is credited with introducing the modern, automatically-rolled cigarette and for his marketing tactics, i.e. putting a baseball card in a carton of cigarettes.

Thomas Edison

Edison was an avid inventor; he invented the phonograph (among other things), but his most important invention was the incandescent light bulb. The lightbulb drastically changed the nature of manufacturing. Work was no longer limited to daylight hours, and as workers worked through the night, profits increased and allowed more workers to work shifts. He founded the Edison Illuminating Company. He was known as the "Wizard of Menlo Park," and he held more than 1,000 patents for his various inventions.

Henry Ford

Ford didn't invent the automobile, but he did revolutionize its production with the creation of an assembly line. He made cars cheaper due to increased efficiency, and he made cars widely available for anyone who wanted one (even his own factory workers, who earned steady wages). In 1903, he founded the Ford Motor Company. He made cars a practical, viable asset.

Samuel Gompers

Gompers was the head of the American Federation of Labor. Unlike Powderly, he believed strikes could be effective, and he frequently used them as a tool. The American Federation of Labor sought to help and uplift mostly skilled, white, male workers, and not the whole working class like the Knights of Labor.

Gustavus Swift

Gustavus Swift founded a meat-packing empire in the Midwest. His development of the first "refrigerated" railroad car enabled meat to be easily and efficiently transported across the States, lowering beef prices and raising sanitation standards. Before, meat was preserved using large amounts of salt, and it often spoiled before it reached its destination.

Henry George

Henry George was a an advocate for the land value tax (a tax on land only, not anything on top of or under it), believing that the value of land belongs to all humanity. His writing inspired the economic philosophy known as Georgism, and his major work, Progress and Poverty, was a global bestseller and a thoughtful treatise on inequality.

Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer coined the phrase "survival of the fittest." He was an avid promoter of social darwinism and evolution. He was the single most influential intellectual (he was an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and political theorist) of the late nineteenth century.

J.P. Morgan

Morgan was a financier who grew mind-bogglingly wealthy due to his investment in the railroad industry and the manufacturing industry. He founded J.P. Morgan & Co., a private banking business, and he bought Andrew Carnegie's steel company to create the United States Steel Corporation. The government sought his help during various financial crises. His company is still around today, and it's still very, very involved in politics. And still very, very happy to monopolize.

Charles Post

Post was a cereal manufacturer who created the Postum Cereal Co. He was a staunch opponent to the trade union, and he advocated for an open shop system.

Terrence Powderly

Powderly was the head of the Knights of Labor, a labor union in the late 19th century. He was also a very politically involved Republican, but a subpar administrator, and the Knights of Labor was overall less successful than Gompers' American Federation of Labor. He sought to help and uplift the working class, but he denounced strikes.

John D. Rockefeller

Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company. Standard Oil monopolized the oil industry (it controlled over 90% of oil), and it was one of the first great U.S. business trusts. He became the world's richest man (worth over a billion dollars), and he is the richest American in history. He was a capitalist, a social darwinist, and an avid philanthropist as well.

Frederick W. Taylor

Taylor was an engineer who wrote The Principles of Scientific Management, a book on how to improve industrial and manufacturing efficiency. He was a leader of the Efficiency Movement one of the first business management consultants, and his methods greatly improved industry output and profit, bolstering the economic progress of the States.

Edward and Clarence Scott

The Scott brothers founded the Scott Paper Company. They were the first people to sell toilet paper on a convenient roll, as well as paper towels and facial tissue. They made toilet paper nicer and less taboo through advertising, and the company was the largest manufacturer of sanitary tissue products.

The du Pont cousins

The du Pont family owned the Dupont Chemical Company. The company manufactured chemicals, along with many different synthetics and polymers (nylon, neoprene, mylar, kevlar, etc.) and organized various research facilities.

Granville T. Woods

Woods was an inventor known as the "Black Edison," yet turned down Edison's offer to become partners. Many of his inventions were train-related; he invented a communication system (the multiplex telegraph) that trains could use, while still moving, to connect to various stations through telegraph wires. He also improved the design for brakes on locomotives, leading to increased train safety. He held more than fifty patents.