Rotating Responses Handout

Rotating Responses | Handout

Guiding Questions

• How did Americans and democratic institutions respond to the rapid economic changes of the early nineteenth century?
• How did industrialization and urbanization transform the economy, society, and culture of the United States in the nineteenth century?

Directions: Read the background information, view the image, and answer each question. Then, follow up your answer with an additional question you could ask. Sample responses are provided on the first row as an example.

Background Information

From 1815 to 1860, big changes swept through Britain, Europe, and the United States during a time called the Industrial Revolution. Before this period, people made things by hand, but now factories with steam engines and machines took over production. New inventions, like steam-powered trains and factory equipment, changed how people lived and worked. These machines helped make goods faster and cheaper than ever before. As factories grew, many people left their farms to find work in cities, which created a new group of factory workers and middle-class citizens.

Not everyone felt the same way about these rapid changes. Some people were excited about all the new inventions and believed science and technology would improve life. Others worried about what might happen to their traditional way of life. They feared that crowded cities would become dirty and that machine-made items would never be the same as human-made. Artists showed these different feelings in their work. One artist, Robert Seymour, drew cartoons called March of Intellect that showed giant walking robots. His drawings mixed wonder at new inventions with worry about machines taking over the world. By making the new technology look silly and extreme, Seymour asked people to think about where all these changes might lead.

Robert Seymour, The March of Intellect, ca. 1828. Original Source.

Questions

Question and Answer	Follow-Up Question
What is the name of this image and when was it created? The image is called “The March of Intellect” from 1828.	What is “marching” and what is marching in the image?
What do each of these parts of the image tell us? The robot The broom Lady Liberty The figures in black along the bottom
This is a satirical cartoon. Satire exaggerates (makes bigger or ridiculous) to make a point. What is the artist exaggerating and what point might they be trying to make?
This art reflects the fears that people experienced surrounding technological advancements and social changes in the 1800s. Do you see similar fears appearing in the United States today?