Lives of the Philadelphia engineers : capital, class and revolution, 1830-1890

Bibliographic Information

Lives of the Philadelphia engineers : capital, class and revolution, 1830-1890

Andrew Dawson

(Modern economic and social history series)

Ashgate, c2004

Available at  / 8 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-288) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This volume examines the emergence of a new class of industrial entrepreneur and the world they confronted and shaped. Historians are reluctant to examine 19th century American business leaders as a social group and this study helps remedy the defect. It interweaves a history of the social and economic development of the largest centre of machine building in 19th century America with the dramatic political narrative of sectional conflict, civil war and reconstruction. Crossing and re-crossing the boundary between industrial and political history it throws important new light on the process of industrialization, the Civil War conflict, and the contested governance of 19th century cities. While this study is firmly rooted in the experience of Philadelphia's machine builders, its historiographic significance extends to many of the important themes of mid-century American history. By rejecting the conventional viewpoint that timid manufacturers were conservative supporters of the plantation South and insisting that workshop owners rejected slavery, this study reinvigorates one of the Civil War's enduring interpretative battles. Of interest to scholars of business, economic, social, labour, education, urban and Civil War history it should stimulate further debate and add a new angle to our understanding of 19th century America.

Table of Contents

  • Philadelphia style
  • Inside the workshop - production, authority and resistance
  • Industrial biography
  • A subaltern class
  • Reconstructing the city
  • Apprenticeship, the habits of industry, and the public schools
  • The decline of Philadelphia engineering and the origin of scientific management
  • Building machines, changing worlds

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