Development of the Industrial U.S. Reference Library

Written to be accessible to a high school and beginning undergraduate audience, this three-volume set (plus an included cumulative index booklet) provides an historical overview of the economic, political, and social issues arising from US industrial development. One volume, the "Almanac," narrates the history of US industrialism, describing transportation and communication systems, early technological innovators, the development of the first factories, the rise of the railroads and the Robber Barons, urbanization, workers and the labor movement, industrialism and the "New South," the effects of industrialism on farming and ranching in the West, and reformers of the Progressive Era. Another volume presents 27 biographies of important figures, including industrial capitalists, politicians and social reformers, inventors, and union leaders, as well as one entry on Chinese transcontinental railroad workers. The volume on primary sources presents excerpts from 18 documents, including Alexander Hamilton's Report to Congress on the Subject of Manufactures, Eli Whitney's cotton gin petition, an account of life among female mill workers, John D. Rockefeller's memoirs, Federal antitrust legislation, and Horatio Alger novels. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)