You will need to produce a 3-page research paper in MLA format including a Works Cited page.
Potential Topics:
(Questions are just a start or a hint to guide you in the right direction. They are not for you to answer like a guided reading question. That would not be a research paper.)
- Social Status – How did the middle class grow – what types of new jobs were created? How did they live?
- Home Life – How did life for women change? What was the difference between the lives of the upper class, middle class, lower class? Responsibilities?
- Women – Women’s rights? Women’s equal opportunities? Women’s suffrage? Women’s education?
- Cities – How did the landscape of the city change? What were some of the new advances in technology to help transform the city?
- Transportation – What were the new advancements in transportation? How did it change people’s lifestyles and opportunities?
- Communication – What were the new ways to communicate? New inventions? How did this change the world?
- Science – How did science and medicine change? How did science disrupt society and religion? What were the benefits of these new discoveries?
- Employment/Work – What were the new differences? Professionals? Educated workers? What types of jobs? What were the working conditions? Any new laws or regulations? What was a typical work day/week?
- Economy – What was the huge change from one man owning a factory to a monopoly? What changes in the economy were there and how did that affect the consumer and society both good and bad?
- Art – What were the changes in art? Realism, Photography, Impressionism
- Entertainment - Now that workers had a “regular” schedule and had some free time, in what forms of entertainment did people participate? Parks, bicycle, opera houses, radio, music shows?
Here are 3 possible essay topics for your essay:
- The impact that steel, electricity, assembly lines and interchangeable parts had on factories. How it changed the way goods were produced, and the effect it had on people's lives as workers and consumers. (Henry Bessemer, American System of Manufacturing, Michael Faraday)
- New discoveries in medicine and how they led to people living longer healthier lives. A new understanding of how germs caused diseases. Better hygiene and better hospital conditions lead to an increase in population. (Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister, Florence Nightingale, Felix Hoffmann, Robert Koch)
- The changing appearance and functions of cities due to skyscrapers, sidewalks, stores, sewer systems. New experiences people could have when going to museums, opera houses, theaters, that they didn't have before. New places to work outside of a factory. (Leisure activities: P.T. Barnum, Minstrel Shows, Vaudeville plus Henry Bessemer & Elisha Otis, Great Stink - sewer systems)
You will visit the Library Media Center to do research on:
Thursday, March 12 and Friday, March 13
Monday March 16 periods 4 & 7
Tuesday March 17 period 3 only
Due: Thursday, March 19 for period 7
Due: Friday, March 20 for periods 3 & 4
