Accurate accounts of the industrial revolution?

[Michelangelo]

I've always been told that the Industrial Revolution was a time of corporate corruption and an all around chaotic life; hazardous jobs, unsafe houses, unsanitary food. This supposedly was because of a lack of government regulations. I really want to know what happened though--I don't necessarily trust my sources for a few reasons. Where do you suppose I can find information on this time period?

[Praxus]

A book I would recomend is How Capitalism Saved America by DiLorenzo. He adresses the topic of Capitalism in History from the founding of America to near present. I have read it, and in my opinion it's a very good book as far as the historical evidence of the greatness of Capitalism goes. There are more out there like The Myth of the Robber Barons by Burton W. Folsom but I havn't read it so I can't recomend it.

[Megan Robinson]

Most modern historians make these kinds of claims while descretely forgetting that GDP sky rocketed during this time. The GDP per capita rose so much, that it created a middle class, and the entire lesiure culture that went with it. The new markets overseas, as well as little government control (especially during the Coolidge administration) expanded the American financial empire as well as the standard of living of ALL American citizens. This time was indisputably an era of business, and thus the best period in American history. Thats why they call the peak of the revolution the roaring twenties. It was great, but will never happen again.

[scottkursk]

I second Praxus on DiLorenzo but have to cast my vote for just about anything by Burton Folsom. Burt did a great job of of it but I think his book Entrepreneurs vs The State is one of my favorite books. Myth of the Robber Baron is a continuation/addition of Evs.S. It specifically addresses the mid to late 19th century. He actually goes case by case starting with Vanderbilt going on to Hill Scranton Schwab and finally Rockefeller.

He does one industrialist per chapter and shows how the whole idea of them being the evil predators that pop culture has made them out to be is pretty full of it. My favorites are Hill and Scranton and how it was actually the goverment and its monopoly powers that can be shown to have caused the "problems" with the railroads.

He also breaks it out into two camps of entrepreneurs. He shows there were market and political entrepreneurs. Burton loves when you point out that Rand pointed that out in Atlas Shrugged 30 years ago. ha ha. He's very much a conservative of the Russell Kirk ilk but still a really good author. The best part of his writing is his brevity. He presents the facts, makes his point, and wraps it up. It's a very concise writing style that makes an easily complex subject easy to read.

I've always been told that the Industrial Revolution was a time of corporate corruption and an all around chaotic life; hazardous jobs, unsafe houses, unsanitary food.  This supposedly was because of a lack of government regulations.  I really want to know what happened though--I don't necessarily trust my sources for a few reasons.  Where do you suppose I can find information on this time period?

[Tom Rexton]

I've always been told that the Industrial Revolution was a time of corporate corruption and an all around chaotic life; hazardous jobs, unsafe houses, unsanitary food.  This supposedly was because of a lack of government regulations.  I really want to know what happened though--I don't necessarily trust my sources for a few reasons.  Where do you suppose I can find information on this time period?

Well, to a certain extent, many jobs were hazardous, low-paying and had long working hours--compared to the air-condition, electrically lighted office jobs of Americans today over 200 years after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. But it was NOT because of lack of government control. If you want to know why such poor conditions were prevalent during the early years (and in third world countries today) and why it was gradually improved over the course of the Revolution, you'll have to learn a bit of economic theory.

I'd suggest learning economic theory before reading economic history.

[Michelangelo]

Alright, thanks for all the advice guys.

[y_feldblum]

Thats why they call the peak of the revolution the roaring twenties. It was great, but will never happen again.

It can easily happen again, and will, when men rediscover reason.

[Godless Capitalist]

There is also Capitalism and the Historians, an essay collection edited by FA Hayek. It's more about the early factory system in Britain.

[Tom Robinson]

I've always been told that the Industrial Revolution was a time of corporate corruption and an all around chaotic life; hazardous jobs, unsafe houses, unsanitary food.  This supposedly was because of a lack of government regulations.  I really want to know what happened though--I don't necessarily trust my sources for a few reasons.  Where do you suppose I can find information on this time period?

"The outstanding fact about the Industrial Revolution is that it opened an age of mass production for the needs of the masses. The wage earners are no longer people toiling merely for other people's well-being. They themselves are the main consumers of the products the factories turn out."

Ludwig von Mises devotes a section of his economic treatise Human Action to answering critics of the Industrial Revolution. The pertinent chapter is available online:

Human Action: Work and Wages

Scroll half-way down to the topic "Remarks About the Popular Interpretation of the 'Industrial Revolution'"

[Megan Robinson]

It can easily happen again, and will, when men rediscover reason.

The reason I say that it won't happen again is mainly because its much easier to create governement controls and a welfare state than it is to destroy one. I may sound crazy, but the situation in The United States is one that, if to be corrected, would require near revolution. To hope that men will become rational soon and turn to the free market is a bit wishful. I doubt it will happen in my life time, if it happens at all. As Peikoff points out, the danger in a mixed economy is that its not even a comprimise. The American economy has become more socialist and less free with time, and nothing promises a significant change.

If there is someone out there who can prove me wrong w/reliable sources, please do. I would like nothing more than to believe this is false.

[y_feldblum]

Intellectual revolutions take time.

It hasn't been fifty years yet since Ayn Rand published Atlas Shrugged - but her revolution - creating a generation of new intellectuals - has already begun.