Author: ERIC MARTINEZVALERIO

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Works Cited

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Cohen, Lizabeth. “Chapter 1: Depression: Rise of the Citizen Consumer.” A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America, Vintage Books, New York, NY, 2007.

Friedman, Walter A. “Chapter 8: Corporate America 1945-1980.” American Business History: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2020. “The Rise of American Consumerism.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service,

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https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500_archive/full/1955/1.html.

 

One of the main takeaways from this course is how dark certain business practices stemmed from like accounting which is still used today but originated as a method of keeping track of slave work as told by Rosenthal. As time progressed we see that labor rights were moving but not at the capacity that the nation was and this led to a delay in particular from being achieved until later on such as child labor is abolished. It is interesting to see how the industrial revolution catapulted the United States to become a nation that is able to sustain itself with the resources now being created and thus becomes a nation in which it can provide to others. As time progressed the nation grew at an impressive rate and it is interesting to take a look at how the nation’s growth from a business aspect. What I had not taken a look at before was this idea of consumer culture that swept the United States in the post-war era. I was fascinated by the market and how it dictated what people were to buy in order to maintain a sense of relevancy. It is usually a time in which most history classes discuss the immediate placement into the Cold War against the Soviet Union. This course discussed the importance of advertising which played a crucial role in the 50s-60s. This course has demonstrated how the United States’ journey to becoming one of the most successful economic nations from what once started as 13 colonies.

 

Preconception about the institutionalizing of The New deal, the objective of this initiative was to restabilize the United States economy to prevent circumstances such as the Great Depression during the 1930’s from occurring again. Noting this, one of the key points during this time was the documented unemployment rates that were at an all time low in comparison to the rates during the Great Depression which was used to demonstrate that the New Deal was a success to the nation. The programs that were introduced allowed for Americans, mainly those in the middle class, to have access to “discretionary income” which would further aid companies and is a cycle established from this (Stein 2). What swerves me during the middle part and heading towards the end of the chapter is how undervalued actual unemployment rates were and the methods that were used to achieve said low unemployment percentages. Stein elaborates on how instead of the unemployment rate being around 3-5 percent realistically they should have been around 20-23 percent as the use of daily surveys were what allowed these low unemployment rates to surface. The use of daily surveys does not take into account other variables such as continued labor for the same people and it can be said that this format of obtaining the unemployment rates was very flawed. 

During this read what also intrigued me was the institutionalization of Keynesian ideas into the United States. Keynes’ ideology as far as seeing unemployment as a threat to free society and civilization aided the idea of The Great Compression in the 1940’s. Prior to this read I had heard about this concept of Keynes economics from previous class discussions, although it was not something I was completely familiarized with. Viewing how Keynesian economics aided the United States during a time where they were starting to fall behind in comparison to countries such as Europe and in Japan where they were starting to see economic progress as well. A question that arises from this reading is what flaws if any come about from this new Keynesian economic model as with everything that becomes institutionalized in society has flaws or setbacks that take time to adjust to these new policies institutionalized. 

“Say what you will, the result was worth the price, and the lives of tens of millions of people were the better for it.” This is the ideology many used to defend what was becoming of the United States. When it comes to the 19th century development the implementation of railroads into the US economy is one of the most notable ones mentioned as it allowed for 3 seperate countries to unite at the time. The initial thoughts brought about from the implementation of the railroad systems were that they were soon to be a symbol of progress for civilizations and the nation as a whole. What was not considered at the time and what Richard White argues is whether it was even necessary to create this system of railroads at the time as there was not much need for it. The incorporations of railroads led to a huge undertaking of mass constructions of these railroads that was subsidized by the government. This expansion came at a price and it is not taken into much account as it is seen more so as a side though to many entrepreneurs who were trying to get many to incorporate railroads into small towns to incentivize them to join the railroad economy. What White notes is that this expansion with the use of railroads did what two generations couldn’t do in half the time. 

There is no doubt that there was success in this implantation of railroads but what is not highlighted enough and what continues to be Whites argument is if it was necessary at the time. What I find interesting is the idea that this is the first time that American industrialism has been criticized for the time it was implemented rather than if it was a good or bad. Rather than criticizing how the implantations of railroads brought economic instability White approaches the topic as to if it was at the right time in history to incorporate the system to the United States. The mention of creative destruction also comes into the mix as when seeing how railroads took out the majority of the Indian population and how it was necessary for the country as a whole to succeed. What is later discussed is the social benefits and how there were only positives mentioned while there were a lot of negatives to also consider when discussing railroad implementation. White acknowledges Hornaday’s statement that “Americans would never appreciate anything that could not be assigned to a large market value”, needless to say this was true this also meant that there were environmental catastrophes that would ensue and not be stopped until the process was too late to reverse the effects. So with the introduction of the railroads rather than being seen as this huge asset to the United States white takes a different approach and criticizes how there was more loss than good that railroads brought into the country. 

Prompt: What was the historic transformation, or change over time, that the author is describing in the reading? According to the historian, why and how did this change take place? Did these changes take place gradually or rapidly, and how did they affect some of the people involved?

 

Taking a look at the reading from Rosenthal’s “Accounting for Slavery” the two chapters discuss the importance of record-keeping and its crucial role in our now modern economy. As Rosenthal explains “without this information, they risked losing their crop”(Rosenthal 16), the introduction of record-keeping proves to have paid its dividends at the time and continued to be used as a means of progressing the newly established system of economics even centuries later. 

The technique of record-keeping was used by Attornies, Overseers, and Bookkeepers who were white workers who were very few and were clearly outnumbered in comparison to the people of color who were forced to work. Their job as workers were to keep track of the slaves who were on the plantations as well as keep track of who was in what section of the plantation. For the white workers, their role of record-keeping was crucial as this information was to be relayed to their supervisors, and them doing their job correctly allowed for possible promotions which meant economic mobility. The graphs that are provided gave a more in-depth look as to what the record-keeping was actually like and shows the complexity of how records were kept back in the 1700s-1800s. As Rosenthal continues she starts to show the formation of this slave society inside the plantation life as there is mention of enslaved managers who would watch over other slaves. This would be reserved for elders or ill-abled people who could not perform as well as others who were healthy. By providing slaves with other means of work, slaveowners maximized profits and would also have them record information that bookkeepers would not always be able to keep track of. There would be incentives that would be used to make sure that their work was the very best and prevent disobedience but this did not stop rebellion from ensuing. The reports done from the enslaved managers would be used to fill the reports for higher-ups and this becomes a cycle where there is a line of command formed that stems from the slaves and is able to make its way all the way up to the attornies which were second in command to the actual slaveowners.

 A question that comes to mind during this reading stems from a section where Rosenthal mentions that since the slaveowners were not always present they would give consent to the attornies to take executive actions as they oversaw day-to-day life on the plantation fields. If this was the case then were there instances where the actions done by an attorney did not justify the result earned? This question stems from the thought that since attornies were given power from the hierarchy formed if there are instances where they over abused their power or if there was there a system that would keep them in check. 

The chapter continues and we see a transformation of how this accountability for the workers adapts into a newer and more concise version than previously seen. There is a very brief mention that alludes to the slaves being punished for wanting to retaliate but when this did occur Rosenthal quotes Trevor Burnard to writing that it accredited the plantation system and that it was “the glue that held the plantation system together”(Rosenthal 39).  off of slave brutality and refocusing into accountability the debut of pre-printed paper becomes a huge part of plantation life as well as industrialization that starts to form in the 1800s. Its use was not only limited to plantations but also was able to be used by industrialist firms. This use of pre-printed paper not only allowed for information to be presented concisely but it allowed for data to be sent with very little text proved to be very insightful. Rosenthal’s work so far goes in-depth into the plantation society and provides us information from an entirely new perspective as since this course is based on business history shows the correlation of how slavery and workers from the plantation helped promote the current economy we have today.