The Industrial Age was a period in American history that experienced enormous technological development. Great economic opportunities accompanied this technological advance, which served to sculpt a more competitive and impersonal American identity. Numerous important intellectual and cultural changes emerged during this period, many of which have had long-standing impacts 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 classes. Along with these widespread changes in thinking and action, the direct reactions resulting 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 space in urban areas, the populist movement and the development of a mass culture. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayOne of the most significant changes in American thinking during the industrial age that served to lastingly alter the nature of settlement within 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 territory. The development of the Frontier provided an avenue for pioneering individuals to pursue such activities. Legislation passed shortly after the Civil War, such as the Land Grant Act and the Pacific Railroad Act, provided the incentive for Americans to move to unsettled lands and helped stimulate 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 enterprising and motivated individuals. The West was considered a melting pot of strength and virility. From the perspective of the West as a frontier, it existed as a borderland between civilization and savagery – the Wild West – which involved the creation of a highly profitable “cowboy culture” that Easterners could exploit through dime novels and entertainment like Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The West held enormous economic and cultural fascination for all Americans, both Western settlers and Eastern citizens. This multitude of Wests that emerged during the 1800s served to cement an American national identity. In the early 20th century, however, the West began to disappear from the public eye. During this period the United States underwent a significant change in economic orientation, moving from a typically agricultural society to an increasingly industrialist society. More wage workers were needed in factories built in East Coast cities and fewer independent landowners to grow crops. This newly formed, unregulated industrial system thrust the American people into a system of great economic potential that clashed with great social and political unfamiliarity. This sudden closure of the West was the result of a shift in thinking driven by highbrow literature such as Frederick Jackson Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History. In 1893, Turner, a young historian at the University of Wisconsin, composed an article that provided insight into the value of the western United States and its ultimate limits. Turner's "Frontier Thesis" outlines the development of the American frontier from 1600 until 1890. After outlining the extent of American settlement, Turnerhe concluded that there was no land left to be discovered in North America: the frontier line was apparently non-existent. Within a country shaped by the desire for expansion, Turner argued that this ability to expand our territory had suddenly disappeared. Although in a realistic sense the western land was just beginning to be occupied; this expansionist logic of Turner and other academics had reached its extreme. Although this was not true, Turner was well aware of the influence of technology and industry that was rapidly growing in East Coast cities. A highly mechanized society required large quantities of paid labor concentrated in small areas close to the factories and presented itself as very foreign and almost opposed to the widespread and family agricultural system. In retrospect, the West possessed a vast wealth of lands to occupy during Turner's time and continues today. Realistically speaking, the actual closing of the Frontier probably differed from Turner's speculations regarding the end of the West. From an ideological point of view, the Frontier Thesis had great merit in correctly anticipating this profound shift in American society towards industry and urbanization. Furthermore, Turner's Frontier Thesis frames the crisis that he and other educated citizens have had to grapple with in the near future: the unbridled, limitless American spirit that these individuals have believed in for over 200 years no longer exists. From this intellectual impulse that moved American thought from the West to the condensed cities of the East, there was a cultural reaction to this new and constricting way of urban living through the introduction of public spaces. As cities became the center of civic life in the United States, a variety of social, political, and health problems plagued the inhabitants of these new environments. Over time and through the publication of publications that exposed the problems of urban life, such as Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives, the United States government stepped forward to bring order to a previously disorganized system. Organizations that regulated the resources afforded by city life, such as adequate sanitation, public transportation, and basic services, were developed as areas became more urbanized. The local political corruption that permeated places like Tammany Hall in New York City began to be tamed through tabloid journalism and powerful legislation. Indeed, as Americans became accustomed to congested living conditions, residents simultaneously acquired a desire for greater freedom in their environments. This breathing space was created through the introduction of public parks. This cultural response to the confinement of cities through the creation of parks and public spaces has been one of the most humanly significant urban developments. 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 perceptible means of overcoming the social class stratification forged by the industrial system. The development of parks has provided some degree of freedom, however small, to all people living in cities. Considering how quickly urbanization occurred in the early 20th century, all individuals needed a place where they could escape from the busy, labor-intensive, impersonal environment of the city to find solace in organic open spaces. The idea of ​​appropriating space for parks and green spaces was all-encompassing, considering that all human beings, regardless of their position in society, have a fundamental connection with nature. Developmentof these new spaces allowed a certain degree of civic attachment between people of different classes. Just as open space in the American West was used as a common culture among the American people, parks were, to some extent, an analogue to the Frontier by facilitating the creation of a more connected identity albeit within a smaller environment and centralized. Frederick Law Olmstead was a pioneer in park development and believed in the social reform that these open spaces could provide to city dwellers.5 Olmstead was perhaps the most prolific landscape architect in the United States and was recruited from coast to coast to design urban parks , roads, university campuses and other structures. According to Olmstead, public parks had the potential to shape public behavior in positive ways. By creating a forum where people of all backgrounds could mix, particularly immigrants who had yet to fully assimilate 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 because of their ability to transcend class boundaries. The development of parks also contributed to a new paradigm regarding the personality of cities. Parks put forward the idea that these places of production could be transformed from something that simply highlights the disparity between people by virtue of their respective living and working conditions to an area that can showcase the similarities that people share. The presence of public spaces has helped demonstrate that cities are more than just centers of employment. Parks are a place where you can abandon commercial interests and embrace leisure and learning about others. The presence of the parks was a reminder that cities are an amalgam of individuals who come together to form a social organism. Each person plays a role in its functioning and, accordingly, the particular rights and interests of all individuals should be considered. During the industrial era, this movement towards the appropriation of public spaces helped to preserve a certain degree of humanity within a highly antagonistic and impersonal context. The Industrial Age represented a profound change in the scope, profitability, and overall ethos of American business interests as embodied by the development of new economic forms. Although Great Britain, as well as other European countries, had gone through a 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. In American business, a new industrial engine known as a corporation arose to seize the opportunity that existed in this unregulated system. Unlike previous American operations, the companies intended to cater to a much larger market by increasing staff and expanding the range and scope of their operations. The appeal of corporations lay in their ability to protect investors by conferring limited liability on their investments, making the act of holding a stake in a company safer. Limited liability had the effect of concentrating unprecedented amounts of capital, which companies could use to expand horizontally or vertically within their market. Multinational corporations represented a complete restructuring of private enterprise, in which independent enterprise had usurped government asengine of economic development in the United States.8 Compared to Adam Smith's idea of ​​the invisible hand, which had governed market interactions well into the 20th century, a very visible hand in the form of a white-collar professional class that used this new corporate form drove the American economy. The company was not only the pinnacle of American industrial success because of its scope of operations and scale of production, but because it represented the fusion of many industrial components. The company's success was the result of the management revolution, the transportation revolution, and the creation of a vast national market. Companies used middle management, a newly developed, educated breed of workers who possessed the ability to lead others, delegate responsibilities, and communicate across great distances, which allowed more business to be done more efficiently than work was done with the middle management.unskilled labor.9 Furthermore, extensive rail networks allowed for a vast distribution network to tap into a huge national market. To the same extent that technological changes during the industrial age predicted the development of the corporate form, the corporation itself ushered in unprecedented change in the intellectual life and values ​​of the United States. In a short period of 20 years, the entrepreneurial culture of the United States has been 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 prominent position in U.S. markets, economic opportunities and the presence of communications networks such as the telegraph pushed companies to pursue foreign consumers. It was through the company that Europeans first encountered American life, particularly through the sale abroad of the Singer sewing machine. Starting with the railroad, the company expanded to nearly every aspect of American life in the late 1800s. Considering that a company's success is determined by the demand for the product sold, the company emerged as the embodiment of the values ​​and society's aspirations. Companies like Standard Oil and the American Tobacco Company expressed America's attachment to things like transportation and smoking. Paradoxically, the company's increased pervasiveness has directly led to its discretion. Although the presence of large international corporations was a significant concern at the time, the excessive production and distribution of advertising by such organizations became customary in society. Although corporations began with the sole purpose of developing the most efficient way to capture profits, this selfish approach to business remains deeply ingrained in American life and thought. Despite the companies' incredible productivity, his rise to power was not without 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 were exemplars of the work ethic who displayed great ingenuity and skill in organizing complex industrial enterprises. The quintessential industrialist in this period was John D. Rockefeller, who owned a titanic corporate conglomerate known as Standard Oil. During Standard Oil's heyday, about 80 percent of the country's oil was under Rockefeller's control. In light of such remarkable market control where price fixing was inevitable, it is understandable why many Americans living during this period felt powerless to resist the economic influence of these companies. Due to the exploitation of the system by many factory owners likeRockefeller, new realms of intellectual thought such as populism were created among the American people as they faced this new economic and social chasm 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 purpose. Populism was a direct response of the working class, i.e. farmers, to multinational corporations inflicting external economic influence over which farmers had no control. The most common means of economic control that corporations channeled toward these farmers was the grain elevator. Many of the companies that existed in the Western United States functioned as monopolies due to the lack of other companies inhabiting the same area. Both the railroads and the grain elevator 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 borrow money from all financial intermediaries. They were unable to increase agricultural production, and as a result, these farmers struggled to survive. For any hope of economic gain, political involvement was necessary for these individuals. Countered by this economic crisis, farmers formed the Grange Movement, a small farmers' organization that attempted to influence political change with the hope of building regional legislation that favored the farmer. The Grange Movement continued to personally finance its silos to ensure that there were no monopolies on farmers in certain regions and that the farmer himself was always treated fairly.14 Other groups such as the National Farmer's Alliance and the Knights of Labor developed from the Movement Grange to defend farmers' rights in a wider sphere. Groups that grew out of this initial interest, however, emphasized the importance of worker's rights. If multinational corporations are to remain a powerful form of industry, the rights of all people must be protected. This is the goal of the Knights of Labor: to protect the rights of skilled and unskilled workers nationwide. Although skilled workers represented an investment, much more than unskilled workers who could have easily been replaced, it was the interest of the people in general that became more important. The company's legacy was the standard it ushered in the American business world. Companies, through their ability to appeal to a national market, intended to maximize economic profit. Although in many cases, these mergers and corporate strategies that sought to corner the market on certain items, much as Rockefeller did for oil, allowed for the development of important laws such as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 that prevented the unfair growth of these trust. Although the prospect of future monopolies was quickly controlled by the government, the creation and breakup of these large corporations set the precedent for monopolistic competition, a characteristic that the American economy still possesses today. This original intent to take advantage of the advancement of technology and the connectedness of the country by virtue of the railways and telegraph led to enormous production of goods and services. The opportunity for large amounts of capital in this multinational-dominated industrial system allowed for a new ethic of acquisition among the wealthy in American society. Historian Thorstein Veblen published a book called The Theory of the Leisure Class, which examined the creation of an entirely new cultural class that Veblen called the leisure class. THE.