The Industrial Revolutions Dave Broker

Americans had long believed their country was a classless society. But by the end of the 19th Century, that myth had been shattered. In the Gilded Age, a super-rich elite emerged. They spent lavishly on houses, parties, and luxuries, while also investing in education and philanthropy. In this chapter, we’ll discuss this new upper-class, as well as how wealth in the United States became so imbalanced. We’ll explore topics like homesteading, Reconstruction, immigration, political corruption, corporate consolidation, and more.

As industrialization drove economic growth all over the Western World, financial systems had to keep growing in complexity and value. And as they did, they continued to drive industrialization further in turn. And, then as now, they were susceptible to greedy players, bad decisions, and panic.

Beginning in the 1870s, the Neoclassical School of Economics emerged. Borrowing the idea of marginal analysis from calculus, and applying it to the ethical theory of Utilitarianism, they revolutionized the way economics was discussed. Today, we discuss the various “Marginalists” of this school, and the impact they had on the history of economic thought.

During the late 19th Century, socialism fractured into numerous schools. In this episode, we explore the growing field of socialist thought, as well as its many colorful characters.

Topics in this episode include:
Edward Bellamy and his novel, Looking BackwardFrench SolidarismFerdinand Lassalle, Eduard Bernstein, and the German Social DemocratsThe Fabian SocietyHenry George and his treatise, Poverty and ProgressMikhail Bakunin and anarcho-collectivismPyotr Kropotkin and anarcho-communismThe Pittsburg Proclamation and anarcho-syndicalism

Watch my 2022 Mill Talk here!
https://industrialrevolutionspod.com/episodes/2022/12/4/podcast-special-from-textile-workers-to-rideshare-drivers-the-never-ending-history-of-creative-destruction

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At the end of the 19th Century, workers throughout the world were fighting increasingly bitter, bloody battles against their capitalist bosses and the governments protecting them. In this episode, we will cover such topics as:
Worker internationalismParis CommuneThe Great Upheaval of 1877The Haymarket MassacreThe Homestead and Pullman strikesThe Belgian General Strike of 1893And more!

The Second Industrial Revolution more or less coincided with the lifespan of the German Empire. From 1871 to 1914, the new nation adopted a fairly democratic constitution, saw massive population growth, and experienced extraordinary economic development. Along the way, they created innovative new goods and services, as well as worker protections unseen anywhere else in the world.

It was largely thanks to the leadership of the Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. But after his fall from high politics, the empire redirected its gains toward militarization. And by 1918, that program would prove to be the empire’s doom.

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