Hampf:

 

AS 32421(Bachelor Nordamerikastudien) / PS 32423(Magister):

Aufbauseminar [BA-NAS, 2 SWS, 5 LP, max. 30 Teiln.] zugleich Proseminar  [Grundstudium Magisterstudiengang Nordamerikastudien, 2 SWS, 7 cr]

Die 14-16 JFKI Raum 203

 

Industrialization, Transport and Communication in the 19th Century

This class deals with Industrialization, Transport and Communication - intricately connected categories in the 19^th century United States. Industrialization, well under way in the 1820s, needed a transport revolution in order to open markets and obtain raw materials. Until the 1850s, turnpikes handled the largest share and most valuable part of regional commerce, despite the overbuilt canal network and early railroads. Only after 1850s, the canal system grew in importance, as did the early railway system, which received its most important thrust during and after the Civil War. Communication was essential to both industrialization and the transport system. Correspondence, still painfully slow in 1800, was uncoupled from human carriers of news and information through the invention and implementation of the electric telegraph, which revolutionized not only mass media, but also trade and international financial markets.

 

Requirements: Regular participation in class and online, presentation in class, research essay

 

Reading: A course pack will be made available at the beginning of the semester. Sources and additional read­ing will be provided through the e-learning platform Blackboard.

Introductory reading: David R. Meyer, The Roots of American Industrialization. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.