Read,in Fink,#1, Andrew Carnegie Hails the Triumph of Capitalism 18-20#2, Henry George Dissects the Paradox of Economic Growth 20-22
Read, in Fink,The Machine as Deity and Demon (Trachtenberg) 27 - 34Class Consciousness, American Style (Fink) 34 - 45As Trachtenberg's title suggests, some Americans worshipped the machine age while others saw it as threatening core values. I'm sure there were some Americans which held both of these views simultaneously. Trachtenberg looks at the way intellectuals (including Henry George, whom you met on Wednesday) analyzed the emerging machine culture. Some of them, like Frederick Taylor, (his portrait appears at the left) created a "cult of efficiency," while others pondered the human costs.As capital became more concentrated and as fortunes reached ever greater sums, the social distance between rich and poor became greater and greater. Carnegie and Lewis espoused a belief than anyone could better himself or herself through diligence, sacrifice, and hard work. The growing power of the "Captains of Industry" seemed likely to overwhelm individual working men and women, however. How could any of them compete successfully with Carnegie and his like? One possible response was labor organization, and this one of the themes of Fink's essay. American Labor behaves differently from European Labor, however, and Fink wants us to consider why American "working classes" respond to industrial change and social crisis in a way different from their European counterparts.
