Summary: Chapter 7
Page 1: Steam Power Unleashed
Newly-industrialized America runs on steam, which powers locomotives, factory equipment, pumps and steamships, and is fueled by abundant Pennsylvania coal
Page 2: Imperfect Transition
As America tries to heal the wounds of war, generals keep order in ruined southern states, while the Freedman's Bureau boosts blacks, and white supremacists create the KKK
Page 3: The South Fails to Rebuild
With all their slave wealth gone, Southerners are left in a grim shell of their former lives, and Blacks are elected to Congress during the only year when most Whites aren't allowed to vote
Page 4: Iron Runs the Show
As railroads reach deeper into coalfields, coal replaces charcoal as the fuel of choice, allowing yearly iron production to skyrocket
Page 5: Rail Service to California
Started during the Civil War, the Transcontinental Railroad finally connects California with the rest of America, turbocharging a railroad construction boom already well underway
Page 6: Government Land Grants
Railroads are so important to growth, but so expensive to build, that state and local governments are eager to help out, donating huge tracts of public land to subsidize new railway routes
Page 7: Financial Manipulation
So much money is being invested in railroads, that manipulation and hooligan tactics are sometimes employed to gain advantage, while European investors are eager to participate
Page 8: Disturbing Events
Rampant railroad over-construction, and great fires in Chicago and Boston lead to financial panic, while KKK clansmen in the South terrorize Blacks in an attempt to regain power
Page 9: Steam Power and Manufacturing Boom
The Factory System, utilizing steam-powered machinery and immigrant labor, enables a surge in manufacturing activity in newly-urbanized centers growing up around railroad terminals.
Page 10: Muscles on the Farm
Outside of urban factories, horses and manual labor still perform most of the work, while immigrants continue to pour in from Ireland, Germany and Scandinavia
Page 11: The Prairie is Different
While the Midwest continues to develop into America's farming heartland, the much drier prairie states of Kansas and Nebraska present more challenges to newly-arriving settlers
Page 12: Western Mining
Most western territories opened up by new rail lines are too dry for traditional farming, but mountain regions are eagerly mined for gold and silver
Page 13: City Maps Depict America
A portrait of the new American landscape emerges, as lithographers travel the country to create stunningly detailed views of all the big cities, and many smaller ones
Page 14: Advertising Grows Up
Expanding rail connections, and advances in graphics techniques, enable manufacturers to reach customers in distant locations, with ads depicting a vast new range of products
Page 15: Advertising Grows Up
City directories have become essential to promoting business, and maintaining current listings of the rapidly expanding range of commercial and civic institutions
Page 16: Obsessed with Documentation
With such frantic growth, the US Census Bureau assumes that task of documenting American innovation, with exacting county-level breakdowns of jobs and business activity
Page 17: After the War
As America emerges from the chaos of war, the country continues to be transformed by westward expansion and civic innovation