Databases and E-books

Discovering Collection

ABC-CLIO Databases

U.S. Immigration and Migration Reference Library

The Jungle
Unabridged e-text of the Upton Sinclair novel.

Urbanization and Industrialization
Traces the growth of urban U.S. centers and industry in the 19th century. (from U.S. Immigration and Migration Reference Library e-book. Get password from teacher or library staff if accessing off campus).

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Immigration

• The Era of "New" Immigration
  Summary of the reasons for immigration, issues faced, and the impact of immigration on the U.S.
• America for Americans
  Describes the anti-immigrant attitudes that existed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the U.S.
• Ellis Island Museum:
  History, accounts of immigrant experiences.
• Immgration Restriction:
  "Immigration restriction became a favored method for nativists and special interests in the "clash of cultures" at the turn of the century. "
• Immigration Restriction
  Another overview of government efforts to restrict immigration in the late 19th and early 20th century.
• Responses to Immigration
  "Since the 1880s, immigration patterns have changed in a number of ways, but what about American responses to immigration? This video examines the various reactions to newcomers around the turn of the century and during the world wars. It also urges the viewer to compare present-day responses to those of earlier times."
• The Changing Character of Immigration:
  Text and images from The World's Work: Scribners monthly, an illustrated magazine for the people, volume 1 (Scribner Son, New York, 1900-01), this article offers one reporter's perspective on immigrants and immigration. See especially her discussion of tenements and the challenges they present.
• Land Loss in California
  This article from Hutching's Magazine in 1857 describes the plight of Mexican and Native American inhabitants of California during the Gold Rush years and beyond.
• Land Loss in Trying Times
  Additional information about Mexican loss of territory during the 19th and 20th centuries.
• Take a Journey Through Ellis Island
  " Most Americans have at least one immigrant ancestor, and many of those came to the United States through Ellis Island. Family Tree Magazine editor David Fryxell fleshes out that basic fact with detailed experiences of actual people who arrived there, and what happened to them afterward."
• On the Trail of the Immigrant
  "This photo album is based upon text and pictures from a book, On the Trail of the Immigrant, by Edward A. Steiner published in 1906."
• Chinese Exclusion Act
  Describes the Chinese Exclusion Act, the nation's first law to ban immigration by race or nationality.
• Chinese Exclusion Act:
  Describes the reasons for the act and its consequences, as well as a complete copy of the act (from U.S. Immigration and Migration Reference Library e-book. Get password from teacher or library staff if accessing off campus).
• E Pluribus Unum (Except the Chinese)
  This web site is designed to shed light on otherwise ignored elements of Chinese life in Nineteenth Century America, including: reasons for emigration to California, myths surrounding the indentured servant (i.e. "coolie") after the Civil War, organizations designed to assist Chinese laborers in California, tensions between white and Chinese workers, political posturing that allowed the Exclusion Act to become law, and a collection of articles and suggested sources for further study.
• Racial Politics and the Chinese Exclusion Act
  Discusses the political climate that led to the passing of this legislation.
• Japanese Immigration
  An overview of Japanese immigration from the mid-1800's to the beginning of World War II.
• Racial Tensions: Italian immigrants and African-Americans
  The economic and social conditions that led to conflicts between these groups.
• Jewish Immigration: The New Radicals
  Describes the wave of Jewish immigration beginning in the 1870s and the challenges this group faced. See also The Politics of Ethnicity.

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Urban Life

• Urbanization:
  Summary of the issues related to urbanization.
• The Rise of Urban America:
  Overview of reasons, effects of urbanization.
• Skyscrapers
  Explains the changes in technology and the conditions of cities that gave birth to the skyscraper.
• Life in a Lower Eastside Tenement
  Take a virtual tour of several apartments from this immigrant section of Manhatten. Be sure to check out the "Research Explore" section.
• City Life in the Early 1900s :
  A sixty year-old man who moved to New York City around 1880 reflects back on the changes he has seen over the past forty years.
• Description of the Tenement Child:
  From Jacob A. Riis, How the Other Half Lives (New York, 1891)
• Child Labor in New York CIty Tenements
  This report "gives the results of a joint investigation made during the months from October, 1906, to April, 1907, into the labor of children in manufacture in tenement houses in New York City."
• The Rise of Department Stores
  How department stores became possible
• Consumers and Catalogues
  The rise of consumerism in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Machine Politics: Boss Tweed
  Details the political corruption of New York City's most infamous politician.

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New Technologies

• Bessemer Process
  Learn about this innovation at the heart of Carnegie's steel mills.
• Thomas Edison: The Miraculous Quality of His Inventions
  Discussion of the impact Edison's work had on American life.
• Controlling the Shop Floor
  Describes the efficiency studies put into practice by Frederick Winslow Taylor.

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Industry

• The Rise of Big Business
  Describes the growth in American manufacturing and industry in the 19th century.
• The Corporate Revolution
  Describes the radical shift in the way businesses were structured and operated in the late 19th century.
• Why Business Grew:
  Explores major reasons for growth in business at the end of the 19th century.
• Big Business: Good or Bad?
  Explores these topics of debate that were raised during the time:
  • whether wealth came from exploitation or from patience, frugality, and virtue;
  • whether bigness was the result of conspiracy or of pressures of blind economic forces;
  • whether men of wealth and power were free to use their riches as they wish or whether they should be taxed to support the public good.
• Monopolies
  Overview of this issue in the 19th century(from the Discovering Collection. Get password from teacher or library staff if accessing off campus).
• Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890
  Overview, analysis of this legislation (from the Discovering Collection. Get password from teacher or library staff if accessing off campus).
• Sherman Antitrust Act:
  Original text of the act and an overview from OurDocuments.gov.

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Steel

• Bessemer Process
  Learn about this innovation at the heart of Carnegie's steel mills.
• Andrew Carnegie
  Biography from Discovering Collection.
• Carnegie's Business Strategies
  Describes Carnegie's tactics to eliminate competition and reduce costs.
• The "Gospel of Wealth"
  Carnegie's belief that the wealthy had an obligation to repay society.
• Homestead Strike:
  Detailed description of this event and Carnegie's role in it.
• The Homestead Strike: THE MILITARY VERSUS LABOR.
  This article was scanned from the "Current Comment" section of The American Illustrated, July 30, 1892, and provides a primary source perspective on the Homestead Strikes.
• Homestead and its Perilous Trades- Impressions of a Visit: An article published two years after the strike, reflecting on the effects of the steel industry on the town.

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Oil

• The Standard Oil Trust
  Described in The Thistle, MIT's alternative newspaper.
• Standard Oil Trust Organized
  Describes how this happened and its effect on business (from the Discovering Collection. Get password from teacher or library staff if accessing off campus).
• Standard Oil Broken Up by Supreme Court
  Explanation of this decision and its impact (from the Discovering Collection. Get password from teacher or library staff if accessing off campus).
• John D. Rockefeller
  Chronicles Rockefeller's rise, creation of Standard Oil, and his later philanthropy.
• Ida Tarbell and the "History of Standard Oil."
  Describes the series this reporter wrote about Rockefeller.
  Excerpts from "The History of Standard Oil"

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Railroad

• The Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad
  PBS American Experience site explains the major consequences of this accomplishment.
• Chinese Immigrants and the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad
• The Great Railroad Strike of 1877:
  One of the first general strikes in the nation's history, this strike "and the violence it spawned briefly paralyzed the country's commerce and led governors in ten states to mobilize 60,000 militia members to reopen rail traffic."

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Banking

• J.P. Morgan
  Brief biography of this financier.
• Jay Gould
  Portrait of the ultimate "robber baron."

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Labor Unions

• American Federation of Labor
  Overview of the early history of this organization (from the Discovering Collection. Get password from teacher or library staff if accessing off campus).
• Samuel Gompers
  Biography from the Discovering Collection.
• Industrial Workers of the World
  Overview of the "Wobblies."
• Knights of Labor
  Early history of this organization (from the Discovering Collection. Get password from teacher or library staff if accessing off campus).
• The Trade Union Woman
  "Excerpt from the Preface to Alice Henry's book, The Trade Union Woman (1915). Henry was a member of the Office Employees' Association of Chicago (a trade union) and former editor of the journal Life and Labor. Discusses some of the major issues concerning working women and the need to regulate their hours, wages, and working conditions.
• Yellow Dog Contracts
  Description of labor contracts preventing workers from joining a union.

Strikes, Conflicts

• Haymarket Affair
  This timeline provides an overview of all the events related to this case.
• The Dramas of Haymarket
  This extensive site chronicles the events surrounding the Haymarket Affair, including its causes and effects.
• The Pullman Strike
  Overview of this important strike from Ohio State's history department.
• The Shirtwaist Maker's Strike:
  "This article from The Survey, a reform magazine dedicated to popular education and investigative journalism, was published in the midst of the 1909 shirtwaist strike. Providing a general survey of the shirtwaist industry--including information about wages and hours and how the system of subcontracting operated--the article also describes the incidents leading up to the strike and the strikers' demands."
• Shirtwaist Strikers: In their own eyes
  Perspectives of these strikes from the workers themselves. See also Moving On, about lessons learned.
• Shirtwaist Strikers: As seen by the employers
  Perspectives of factory owners on these strikes.
  
  

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  Suggested Searches in ABC-CLIO:

  In ABC-CLIO

  Topic	Database
  Transportation Revolution of the 19th Century	American History
  Urbanization	American History
  Second Industrial Revolution	American History
  Public transportation	American History
  Machine Politics and Bossism	American History
  Industrial Workers of the World	American Government
  Anti-trust laws	American Government
  Tweed Ring	American Government

  last updated September 30, 2009