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AP U.S. History 1.3 Period 7: 1890-1945 257 Views


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AP U.S. History 1.3 Period 7: 1890-1945. How did the rise of the corporations affect the social order of the time?

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Transcript

00:00

[ musical flourish ]

00:03

And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the social order,

00:07

like french fries to share with the table.

00:10

All right, first up - the excerpt.

00:12

All right, labor of human beings not a commodity...

00:14

Blah blah blah blah blah... [ mumbles ] Clayton Antitrust.

00:17

All right, and now the question:

00:19

How did the rise of corporations affect the social order of the time?

00:23

And here are the potential answers.

00:25

[ ding ]

00:29

What exactly is this question asking?

00:31

Well, we know that the growth of corporations led to

00:34

an increase of cheap goods available for consumers.

00:36

That's a good thing, right? And with more goods out there,

00:39

consumers spent more and more money, which meant that

00:41

corporations could keep making the goods.

00:44

That's quite the feedback loop. So we need to figure out

00:46

which answer best describes what kind of an impact this

00:49

business model was having on society as a whole.

00:52

Did the rise of corporations affect the social order because

00:56

A - it led to greater income equality between

00:59

employers and employees?

01:01

Well, actually, this time period saw a growth in income inequality.

01:05

Corporations were making increasingly more money, but wages

01:08

were staying relatively stagnant. So it's not A.

01:11

Did the growth of corporations B - decrease the overall demand for labor?

01:15

Hmm. With consumer demand soaring, corporations needed

01:18

tons of new employees for low-skilled jobs, most of which

01:21

were doing things like pushing a button

01:23

over and over and over and over again for 12 hours.

01:26

That meant Americans wouldn't need a higher education

01:28

to obtain this kind of work either, so we can eliminate B and C.

01:31

Which means that the rise of corporations affected the social order because D -

01:35

it provided women and migrants greater economic freedom.

01:39

Because these new jobs didn't require a lot of education and experience,

01:42

women and migrants were finally able to join the workforce.

01:45

So the correct answer is D. Now, although the jobs were often

01:48

dangerous and sometimes exploitive,

01:50

women still enjoyed greater economic opportunities than before.

01:54

So it looks like you really can put a price on freedom.

01:56

Probably about ten cents an hour.

02:01

[ bird call ]

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