The Industrial Age was a period in American history that saw considerable technological development. Great economic opportunities accompanied this technological progress, which served to sculpt a more competitive and impersonal American identity. A multitude of important intellectual and cultural changes emerged during this period, many of which had a long-lasting impact on life in the United States. These changes included the intellectual shift from expansionism to urbanization, the creation of the corporate form, and conspicuous consumption behavior among the upper class. Associated with these widespread changes in thought and action, the direct reactions arising from each of these changes played an important role in how these changes would affect people's well-being in the future. These reactions included the introduction of public spaces in urban areas, the populist movement and the development of mass culture. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay One of the most important shifts in American thinking during the Industrial Age that helped to lastingly alter the nature of colonization in the United States was a new and radically divergent perception of space. Before the late 1800s, American history was characterized by a fundamental desire to explore and settle uncharted territories. The development of Frontier enabled pioneering individuals to carry out these activities. Laws passed soon after the Civil War, such as the Land Grant Act and the Pacific Railroad Act, provided incentives for Americans to settle unsettled lands and helped spur the growth of industry and markets in the western United States. of the unexplored West represented a state of true independence that favored the most resourceful and motivated individuals. The West was seen as a crucible of strength and virility. From the perspective of the West as a frontier, it existed as a frontier between civilization and savagery – the Wild West – which allowed the creation of a very lucrative "cowboy culture" that Easterners could exploit through stories and dime shows such as Buffalo. Bill's Wild West Show. The West possessed considerable economic and cultural appeal to all Americans, Western settlers, and Eastern citizens. This multitude of Westerners who emerged during the 1800s served to cement an American national identity. However, around the turn of the 20th century, the West began to fade from the public eye. The United States experienced a significant change in economic orientation during this period, moving from a typically agrarian society to an increasingly industrialist one. More wage workers were needed in the factories built in East Coast cities and fewer independent landowners to grow the crops. This newly formed and unregulated industrial system plunged the American people into a system of great economic potential met with great social and political ignorance. This sudden closure of the West was the result of a change in thinking driven by intellectual literature such as The Significance. of the Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner. In 1893, Turner, a young historian at the University of Wisconsin, wrote an article that provided an overview of the value of the Western United States as well as its ultimate limits. Turner's "frontier thesis" describes the development ofAmerican frontier from the 1600s to the 1890s. After describing the extent of American settlement, Turner concluded that there was no undiscovered land left in North America: the boundary line was apparently non-existent. In a country that was forged on a desire for expansion, Turner explained that this ability to expand our territory had suddenly disappeared. While, realistically speaking, the western lands were only beginning to be occupied; This expansionist logic of Turner and other scholars had reached an extreme. Although this was false, Turner was well aware of the influence of technology and industry that was rapidly expanding in East Coast cities. A highly mechanized society required large amounts of wage labor concentrated in small areas near factories and presented itself as very foreign and almost opposed to the widespread and familiar agricultural system. In retrospect, the West had a vast wealth of land to occupy in Turner's time and continues to do so today as well. In reality, the actual closing of the border probably differed from Turner's speculations regarding the demise of the West. From an ideological point of view, the Frontier Thesis had the great merit of correctly anticipating this profound change in American society towards industry and urbanization. Additionally, Turner's Frontier thesis describes the crisis he and other educated citizens faced in the near future: the soaring, boundless American spirit that these individuals believed in for over 200 years no longer exists . As American thought moved from the West to the condensed cities of the East, there was a cultural backlash to this new restrictive way of living in the city through the introduction of public spaces. When cities became the center of civilized life in the United States, many social, political, and health problems plagued residents of these new environments. Over time and with the publication of works exposing the problems of urban life, such as How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, the American government mobilized to restore order to a previously disorganized system. Organizations that regulated the resources that urban life guaranteed, such as adequate sanitation, public transportation, and basic utilities, grew as areas became more urbanized. The local political corruption that permeated places like Tammany Hall in New York began to be brought under control through lousy journalism and powerful legislation. Because as soon as Americans became accustomed to crowded living conditions, residents simultaneously acquired a desire for greater freedom in their environment. This breathing was established through the introduction of public parks. This cultural response to city confinement through the creation of parks and public spaces has been one of the most significant urban developments on a human level. The development of parks in the United States marked a significant social change for the American people and was one of the first and most noticeable ways to overcome the social class stratification wrought by the industrial system. The development of parks has provided a degree of freedom, however small, to all city residents. Given the rapidity with which urbanization occurred at the turn of the 20th century, all individuals needed a place where they could get away from the hectic, hard-working, impersonal ambiance of the city to find comfort in organic open spaces. The idea of ​​appropriating space for parks and green spaces was global,considering that all human beings, regardless of their position in society, have a fundamental connection with nature. The development of these new spaces allowed a certain degree of civic attachment between people of different classes. Just as open spaces in the American West were used as a common culture among the American people, parks were, to some extent, an analogue of Frontier in facilitating the creation of a more connected identity, albeit within a framework smaller and more centralized. Frederick Law Olmstead was a pioneer in park development who believed in the social reform that these open spaces could bring to urban dwellers.5 Olmstead was arguably the most prolific landscape architect in the United States and been recruited from coast to coast to design city parks, roads, college campuses and other structures. According to Olmstead, public parks had the potential to shape public behavior in positive ways. By creating a forum for people from all backgrounds to mix, particularly immigrants who have not yet fully assimilated into society and those from the upper classes, parks could erase the disturbing strangeness of the working class and replace it with middle-class values.6 From Olmstead's perspective, parks carried great weight through their ability to transcend class boundaries. The development of parks has also contributed to a new paradigm regarding the personality of cities. Parks put forward the idea that these places of production can be reformed, moving from a simple view of the disparity between people due to their respective living and working conditions to a space that can display the similarities that people share. The presence of public spaces has helped to show that cities are more than just employment hubs. Parks are a place where one can abandon their business interests and spend free time and get to know others. The presence of parks reminds us that cities are an amalgam of individuals who come together to form a social organism. Each person plays a role in its functioning and, therefore, the particular rights and interests of each person must be taken into account. During the industrial era, this movement to appropriate public spaces helped preserve a certain degree of humanity in a highly antagonistic and impersonal setting. The Industrial Age represented a profound change in the scope, profitability, and overall ethos of American business interests. embodied by the development of new economic forms. Although Britain as well as other European countries experienced their own period of industrialism before the United States, products invented in the United States became distinctly American. In communication, Alexander Graham Bell developed the telephone and in electricity, Thomas Edison invented the first commercially practical incandescent light bulb. When it comes to American business, a new industrial engine known as the corporation has emerged to seize the opportunities offered by this unregulated system. Unlike previous American businesses, the companies aimed to satisfy a much larger market by employing more workers and increasing the scale and reach of their operations. The appeal of corporations lay in their ability to protect investors by granting limited liability on their investment, making it safer to own a stake in a company. Limited liability had the effect of concentrating unprecedented amounts of capital, which companies could useto expand horizontally or vertically within their market. The corporations represented a complete restructuring of private enterprise, in which independent businesses had usurped the government as the engine of economic development in the United States.8 Compared to Adam Smith's idea of ​​the invisible hand, which had governed market interactions until the 20th century, century, a very visible hand in the form of a white-collar professional class using this new form of business guided the American economy. The company was not only the pinnacle of American industrial achievement because of its scope of operations and scale of production, but because it represented the amalgamation of many industrial components. The company's success is the result of the managerial revolution, the transportation revolution and the creation of a vast national market. Companies used middle managers, a newly developed and educated breed of workers who possessed the ability to lead others, delegate responsibilities, and communicate over long distances, making it possible to do more business more efficiently than with middle managers. middle management.unskilled labor.9 Additionally, extensive railroad networks enabled a vast distribution network to tap a huge national market. To the same extent that technological changes during the industrial age enabled the development of the corporate form, the corporation itself ushered in unprecedented change on the intellectual life and values ​​of the United States. In a brief 20-year period, America's business culture has completely transformed into a profoundly powerful force, not only in American culture, but also in relation to the rest of the world. After gaining a stronghold in American markets, economic opportunities and the presence of communications networks such as the telegraph pushed companies to seek out foreign consumers. It was through this company that Europeans first discovered American life, notably through the sale abroad of the Singer sewing machine. Beginning with the railroad, the company expanded into almost every aspect of American life by the late 1800s. Considering that the success of a business is determined by the demand for a product sold, the he company emerged as an embodiment of the values ​​and aspirations of society. Companies like Standard Oil and American Tobacco Company expressed Americans' attachment to things like transportation and tobacco. Paradoxically, the company's growing omnipresence directly led to its demise. Although the presence of large international corporations was a considerable concern at the time, the excessive production and distribution of advertisements from these organizations became commonplace in society. Even though the company was born with the sole purpose of developing the most efficient way to make a profit, this selfish approach to business remains deeply ingrained in American life and thinking. Despite the company's incredible productivity, its rise to power was met with trepidation among the American public. Inspired by the desire to reap profits and impose order in a chaotic and unstable economy, many captains of industry exemplified the work ethic and demonstrated great ingenuity and skill in organizing complex industrial enterprises. The quintessential industrialist of this era was John D. Rockefeller, who owned a titanic conglomerate known as Standard Oil. At Standard Oil's peak, approximately 80% ofThe country's oil was under Rockefeller's control. In light of such remarkable market control in which price fixing was inevitable, it is understandable why many Americans living during this era felt powerless to resist the economic influence of these companies. Due to the exploitation of the system by many factory owners such as Rockefeller. , new areas of intellectual thought such as populism were created among the American people to address this new economic and social chasm that has formed between the new "haves" and "have-nots" of American society. As a body of thought and a political party, populism served both an ideological and political objective. Populism was a direct response by the working class, namely farmers, to corporations that exerted external economic influence over which farmers had no control. The most common means of economic control that corporations used over these farmers was the grain elevator. Many companies that existed in the Western United States operated as monopolies due to the lack of other companies inhabiting the same region. Railroads and grain elevators could impose unfair conditions on the farming community. Following the Panic of 1873 following the failure of the Jay Cooke & Company bank, farmers lost the ability to lend money to all financial intermediaries. They were unable to increase their agricultural production and as a result, these farmers found it difficult to survive. For any hope of economic gain, political engagement became necessary for these individuals. Opposing this after the economic crisis, farmers formed the Grange Movement, a small farmers' organization that attempted to influence political change in the hopes of developing regional legislation favorable to farmers. The Grange movement then personally financed its own grain elevators to ensure that there was no monopoly on farmers in certain areas and that the farmer himself was always treated fairly.14 Other groups such as the National Farmers Alliance and the Knights of Labor developed from the Grange Movement in order to advocate for farmers' rights in a broader sphere. Groups emerging from this initial interest, however, emphasized the importance of worker rights. If business is to remain a powerful form of industry, the rights of all must be respected. This is what the Knights of Labor is all about: protecting the rights of skilled and unskilled workers nationally. Although skilled workers represented an investment, much more so than unskilled workers who could have been easily replaced, it was the interest of the people in general that became more important. The company's legacy was the standard it ushered in American business. Companies, thanks to their ability to attract a national market, intended to maximize their economic profit. Although in many cases these mergers and business strategies that sought to corner the market on certain products, much like Rockefeller did with oil, allowed for the development of important legislation such as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 which prevented the unjust growth of oil. these trusts. Although the prospect of future monopolies was quickly curbed by the government, the precedent for monopolistic competition arose from the creation and dissolution of these large corporations, a characteristic that the American economy still possesses today. This initial intention to capitalize on the progress of.