Ch.14, Section 2, The Age of the Railroads

Chapter 14 : A New Industrial Age Chapter Links
The Internet offers a range of social studies resources, including Web sites of museums, government agencies, educational institutions, and the news media. Listed below are links to some outstanding social studies Web sites.

Section 1: The Expansion of Industry
Alexander Graham Bell's Path to the Telephone http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/ albell/ homepage.html Detailed technical information and flowcharts, incorporating Bell's own sketches, that trace the development of the telephone. Includes links to related sites. More About Bell http://www.pbs.org/ wgbh/ amex/ telephone/ peopleevents/ mabell.html Data on Bell as a man, a humanitarian, and an inventor. Mark Twain at Large: His Travels Here and Abroad http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ Exhibits/ MTP/ Exhibit of photos, book excerpts, and letters documenting the experiences of the author of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, who also wrote extensively about his world travels. Alexander Graham Bell http://www.invent.org/ hall_of_fame/ 11.html Brief overview of Bell and his inventions. Part of the National Inventors Hall of Fame site. Mark Twain in Cyberspace http://www.salwen.com/ mtcyber.html Annotated collection of links to Mark Twain information, criticism, and texts on the World Wide Web Thomas Edison http://www2.lucidcafe.com/ lucidcafe/ library/ 96feb/ edison.html Brief overview of Edison's life and career, with links to additional Edison resources and to information about other inventors, including Henry Bessemer and Alexander Graham Bell
Section 2: The Age of the Railroads
George M. Pullman http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ USApullmanG.htm Short biography of the powerful railroad figure Golden Spike National Historic Site http://www.nps.gov/ gosp/ Story of the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 and of subsequent memorializations of the event Union Pacific Corporation History and Photos http://www.uprr.com/ aboutup/ history/ Illustrated overview of Union Pacific's history, focusing on its contribution to the transcontinental railroad
Section 3: Big Business and Labor
Andrew Carnegie's Philanthropies http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/ aboutus/ philanthropies.htm Concise history of Carnegie's life and philanthropic efforts The Carnegie Story http://www.carnegie.org/ sub/ about/ biography.html Detailed information about Carnegie's life and about his estate in Scotland. Herbert Spencer's Social Darwinism http://www.victorianweb.org/ philosophy/ socdar.html Clear explanation of Social Darwinism and its importance to sociologists.
Geography Spotlight: Industry Changes the Environment
The Cuyahoga River http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/ Other_Groups/ K-12/ fenlewis/ History.html History of the Cuyahoga River, from its glacial formation to the present, created by members of a high school science club Cleveland Bicentennial Online: Historical Highlights http://ech.cwru.edu/ timeline.html Time line of Cleveland history from 1796 to the present. Includes links to historic photographs and articles on specific topics in Cleveland history. American Memory: Cleveland, Ohio http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ ammem/ mdbquery.html Search for historical photographs from the Library of Congress's American Memory project.

Ch. 14
SECTION 2 The Age of the Railroads
Identify the role of the railroads in unifying the country.
List positive and negative effects of railroads on the nation’s economy.
Summarize reasons for, and outcomes of, the demand for railroad reform.
Focus & Motivate
Starting With the Student
What name might you give to our present age?
Possible response:
“The Age of the Car”
“The Age of the Computer”
“The Information Age”

Consider the role that technology exerts on almost all aspects of American life.
Do you think that railroads may have played a similar role in American life in the late 19th century? Why or why not?

More About. . . .
Pullman, Illinois
George Pullman kept costs in his company town low by standardizing the desing of the houses and by prefabricating the materials in Pullman shops. The town of Pullman became a part of Chicago in 1889.

Objective1 Instruct
Railroads Span Time and Space
Starting With the Student
What do you know about railroads? What are the advantages and disadvantages of railroads compared with other forms of transportation?

Discussing Key Ideas
The government facilitates the expansion of the railroads through land grants and loans.
Transcontinental railroads link American coasts.
The railroads promote a sense of adventure.
Railroad workers endure hardships and danger for low pay.
The importance of the railroads spurs adoption of a standardized time system.

Historical Spotlight
Railroad Lore
Critical Thinking
Comparing and Contrasting
Sentences can be written comparing the meaning of the railroad phrases mentioned as they relate to the railroads and to everyday life.

History From Visuals
Major Railroad Lines, 1870-1890
Reading the Map
Students should study the distribution of railroads throughout the country and the land forms associated with various regions. What connections can you draw?
Possible Answer:
The greatest concentration of railroad routes is from the relatively flat Midwest.
Extension
Trace possible railroad routes from Boston to Sacramento, from Cleveland to Los Angeles, or from Seattle to Omaha.

Objective 2 Instruct
Opportunities and Opportunists
Discussing Key Ideas
· The growth of railroad lines promotes trade and interdependence among cities and leads to the development of new markets.
· Communities of workers spring up, including company-managed, planned towns.
· Some corrupt industrialists make huge profits at the expense of workers and stockholders.

Another Perspective
On the Wrong Track
Why might people resist change? A paragraph can be written objecting to a modern development, such as supersonic air travel, email, or cellular phones.

Objective 3 Instruct
The Grange and the Railroads
Starting With the Student
Think about the material covered in Chapter 13 concerning the problems farmers had with the railroads. Write up a list of those complaints (perhaps on the board): high prices to ship goods to market; railroads’ attempts to control prices for the sale and storage of grain.

Discussing Key Ideas
Farmers resent abuses inflicted on them by the railroads.
The Grangers take political action against the railroads.
Controversy arises over regulation of the railroads.
The Supreme Court rules that railroads are involved in interstate commerce and should be federally regulated.
The financial breakdown of many railroads triggers a national economic collapse.
Railroads begin consolidating—a trend that other businesses follow.

History From Visuals
Reading the Cartoon, p. 420
What do the strings that are attached to the trains suggest about how these tycoons controlled the railroads?
Extension
Write a caption for the cartoon that helps the reader understand it.

Close
The growth of the railroads affected every facet of American life. Their eventual consolidation inaugurated the age of big business.

A-F, Skillbuilder Answers

A. p. 417
Answer
Positive: Reliable local transportation and westward expansion; Negative, Harsh, dangerous conditions and low pay for railroad workers.

Geography Skillbuilder
Answer
Location: Their location as rail hubs.
Place: Pacific

B. p. 418
Answer
Industry would have developed more slowly and most businesses probably would have been smaller and more local.

C. p. 419
Answer
Employees resented having their personal lives controlled by their employer.

D. p. 419
Answer
By charging too much for railroad construction, keeping the extra money for themselves, and paying off government officials.

Skillbuilder, Interpreting Political Cartoons, p. 420
Answer: They exerted total control over the nation’s railroad system.

E. p. 420
Answer
The farmers took united political action and pressed legislators to enact laws to protect them.

F. p. 420
Answer
Corporate abuses and mismanagement, overbuilding, and int6ense competition weakened many railroad companies, leading to a collapse of the larger economy.

Extra Credit
“I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”
“The Wabash Cannonball”
“The Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe”
“The City of New Orleans”
One point for the lyrics to any historical railroad song.
Five points if a student plays a tape or recording of the song.
Ten points if a student performs a song.