Advanced American Studies
Our study of the Gilded Age begins today with an analysis of both the explosion of technical innovation that happens in the United States after the Civil War and the reasons for it. Developments such as steel, railroads, the telephone, electric grids and lights, recorded sound, motion pictures, airplanes etc. create a modern industrial age and thrust the US to the forefront of the global economy for much of the 20th century. Abundant natural resources, a steady stream of immigrants, capitalism, and a system of patents and legally binding contracts all create a fertile environment for innovation and industrial expansion.
Assignment: Read text pages 107-113 The Rise of Big Business
Thomas Alva Edison was the most prolific inventor in American history. He amassed a record 1,093 patents covering key innovations and minor improvements in wide range of fields, including telecommunications, electric power, sound recording, motion pictures, primary and storage batteries, and mining and cement technology. As important, he broadened the notion of invention to encompass what we now call innovation-invention, research, development, and commercialization-and invented the industrial research laboratory. Edison's role as an innovator is evident not only in his two major laboratories at Menlo Park and West Orange in New Jersey but in more than 300 companies formed worldwide to manufacture and market his inventions, many of which carried the Edison name, including some 200 Edison illuminating companies.
Courtesy Thomas Edison Papers -- Rutgers University
American History
Our study of the Gilded Age begins today with an analysis of both the explosion of technical innovation that happens in the United States after the Civil War and the reasons for it. Developments such as steel, railroads, the telephone, electric grids and lights, recorded sound, motion pictures, airplanes etc. create a modern industrial age and thrust the US to the forefront of the global economy for much of the 20th century. Abundant natural resources, a steady stream of immigrants, capitalism, and a system of patents and legally binding contracts all create a fertile environment for innovation and industrial expansion.
Assignment: Read text pages 107-113 The Rise of Big Business
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