Between 1820 and 1860 economic transformations in the Northeast and the Old Northwest reshaped economic, social, cultural, and political life. Though most Americans still lived in rural settings, economic growth and the new industrial mode of production affected them through the creation of new goods, opportunities, and markets. In cities and factory towns, the new economic order ushered in new forms of work, new class arrangements, and new forms of social strife. After placing American economic change in an international context, another focus of this text, and discussing the factors that fueled antebellum growth, the chapter turns to the industrial world, where so many of the new patterns of work and life appeared. An investigation of urbanization reveals shifting class arrangements and values as well as rising social and racial tensions. Finally, an examination of rural communities in the East and on the frontier in the Old Northwest highlights the transformation of these two sections of the country. Between 1840 and 1860, industrialization and economic growth increasingly knit them together.
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