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Period 7: 1890–1945 Videos 19 videos
AP U.S. History 1.1 Period 7: 1890–1945. The Clayton Antitrust Act marked a new period in American labor relations because it...what?
AP U.S. History 1.2 Period 7: 1890-1945. Antitrust laws like the Clayton Act were a direct response to what development in the United States economy?
AP U.S. History 1.3 Period 7: 1890-1945. How did the rise of the corporations affect the social order of the time?
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?
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...
Full Transcript
- 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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