Those new things that altered perceptions of time included working long shifts in factories, joining organizations, raising families under different - and often more stressful - circumstances. The word "modernization" is used by McCormick in his essay - rather than "industrialization" - to better describe the radically changing conditions in America, which was being "transformed" from a land of "island communities" (108) to a nation where organized, cosmopolitan interests held sway."

When muckrakers began, in the late 1800s, about corruption in the government, and the building of Standard Oil, about "how badly children were injured in factories," Americans took time to read their papers, some of them reading every day's newspaper cover-to-cover, "not only to e

The Purcell book (119) quotes a worker from 1880: "Of one thing we are convinced, that while the improved machinery is gathering our large crops, making our boots and shoes, doing the work of our carpenters, stone sawyers, and builders, thousands of able, willing men are going from place to place seeking employment and finding none. The question naturally arises, is improved machinery a blessing or a curse?"

The percentage of Americans who were farmers in 1880 was 43.8%; many of these people were farming because of the Homestead Act, which was the federal government's way of filling in the great stretch of land across Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas (115). Time spent working a farm was not like time spent in a factory; the mechanization of farming meant that you "made hay while the sun shines," and it was seasonal. The way time was spend on work for those 43.8% of Americans was, you plant in the spring, cultivate in the summer, and harvest in the fall. When the work was done, farm families enjoyed singing, going to church, helping neighbors, and recreational games around the farm.

"Life in Nineteenth-Century Cincinnati" is an essay by Kathryn Kish Sklar in The Library of Congress's "Home Sweet Home" section.4 Family life in the mid-nineteenth-century Cincinnati was far different from family life in this Ohio city in the 18th Century. "Whereas the 18th Century assumed continuity between generations," she writes, "nineteenth century life, socially more heterogeneous and economically less predictable, required a more flexible family structure and fostered a more loving family environment."

The mechanization of farming changed the way millions of Americans worked. When Cyrus Hall McCormick (no relation to the McCormick who is referenced above) perfected and patented the horse-drawn wheat reaper, in 1854, it was generally believed to be the "first successful machine of that type" according to The Machine in America.3 The importance of this invention can be viewed in light of the fact that "land given over to farming in the United States more than doubled between 1850 and 1890," and tripled by 1910, Pursell's book reports. And the farm population grew fast, from 21.9 million in 1880 to 32.4 million people by 1910.

But they weren't just reading the morning newspapers, rushing off to the assembly line and then home again for supper and bedtime. Men and women - "from virtually every segment of society" - were using their available time to "plunge into public life," in order to defend, or promote, their "private values," the author continues (109). He gives examples of how people used their time; "torchlight paraders" in Connecticut rallied for political candidates; women "crusaded for temperance" in Ohio; in Texas, cotton farmers organized into unions and cooperatives; "angry mobs lynched rapists in South Carolina"; elite business-minded people "reformed New York City" (110).

Some common words found in the essay are:
Oklahoma Texas, Machinery Shoes2, Richard McCormick, Knife Company, Thompson Corset, America McCormick, San Francisco, York City, Machine America3, Century Whereas, corset factory, late 1800s, 19th century, industrial america 1876-1900, industrial america, assembly line, knights labor, library congress, america 1876-1900, mechanization farming, rise industrial america, san francisco,
Approximate Word count = 2842
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)