Howard Zinn's Argumentative Essay

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The United States underwent a period of time where industrialization took a huge step forward; small towns and farms started to become developed cities with factories, providing the country with jobs, manufactured goods, and a rapidly increasing economic balance. Even with the number of farmers going down, the industries managed to maintain the abundant growth of crops such as wheat and corn. It is believed that this rapid increase in industrialization sparked due to the “Transportation revolution,” a time period where more routes of transportation were being developed (railroads, canals, roads), which allowed for shorter, cheaper, and easier travels through the U.S.. With this rapid increase in modernization in the country going on, there…show more content…
One of the first points Zinn exposes is that these industries relied on the proletariats of the country; but the pay of these workers would vary depending of their sex, race, and origin. “… [T]he industrial and political elites of North and South would take hold of the country and organize the greates march of economic growth in human history. They would do it with the aid of, and at the expense of, black labor, white labor, Chinese labor, European immigrant labor, and social class, in such a way as to create separate levels of oppression- A skillful terracing to stabilize the pyramid of wealth.” (55) Zinn brings this point up not to only gain some support through a moral appeal, but also back up his argument regarding the “Robber Barons,” on how they were willing to take advantage of their workers to increase their profits and taking control of the U.S. by having this “pyramid of wealth” active. Considering that there was an increase on the number of immigrants that came to the United States and needed a job to maintain their families, there was plenty of people that would take their job offerings, and since they were from a different country, the companies would be able to pay them less money when compared to a white man born in the

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