For this essay, we’ll do something a bit different: Answer four specific questions. They are:
(a) What’s the difference between the cottage industry system and the factory system?
(b) What role did the concept of “efficiency” play in the early Industrial Revolution?
(c) Organization and technology played significant roles in the factory system. Explain.
(d) What is meant by the “integration of a national market” in early nineteenth century America?
Understand that these are four specific questions you’ll need to answer in a single, integrated essay; this is not a choice of one of the four questions.
All four questions are interrelated, which is to say, much of what can be used to make and demonstrate answers for one question can also be used for the others. Therefore, you can write a single essay in which you answer all four questions, or you can write four shorter essays, one for each question. For both options, all the standard criteria for research and analytical essays in this course still apply, including the use of evidence or factual material, cites and bibliographies, a cogent thematic argument, a conclusion, etc.
Notes:
1. Note the italicized words and phrases in each of the four questions for this essay. They denote the key issues you’ll be discussing.
2. Question “a” is a comparison between two modes of production: cottage and factory. Differences and similarities are both important, and so are outcomes. What’s the outcome of switching from one to the other?
3. Question “b” requires a definition of what efficiency is, in addition to why it’s important. Definitions are almost always a good thing to start out with, in any exercise. Keep in mind that efficiency also has an “outcome” and it’s similar to the outcome in question “a”.
4. Question “c” is about as close to a “trick question” as this essay problem gets. Here’s why: Most people associate the Industrial Revolution and “factories” with technology — complicated machinery in large buildings with belching smokestacks. But as a result of reading through this section, you know better now, don’t you? It isn’t that technology isn’t important; it is. But organization is equally and sometimes even more important. So part of this question is about explaining how and why.
5. Question “d” is the “conceptual” question in this essay. It’s largely based on definition: what does “integration of national markets” mean? And secondly, how does the concept (integrating national markets) apply to early nineteenth century American history? If you’re hazy on the concept, ask yourself: What did they make in Lowell, Mass. and other parts of New England or the mid-Atlantic states? What did they make in Ohio or parts of the Midwest? Based on the answers to those two questions, what did people in Lowell eat? What did people in Ohio buy? So… what was shipped from Ohio to Lowell to eat, and what was shipped from Lowell to Ohio to buy… and there’s your “integration of a national market”. (Food and manufactured goods are the answers, by the way.) Finally, ask yourself how the food got shipped and how the manufactured goods got shipped – along with coal and wood for factories, and plows and fertilizer for farms. (And now you’re into tying together the nation with a transportation and communications revolution – all part of the “integration of a national economy”.
As always I’ll be looking for evidence of effort; a cogent, coherent argument, good use of evidence and factual materials, clear writing and organization, and citations and a bibliography: the usual things. If you have any questions or concerns, just ask. Happy to read a draft, if you like. JM
