History of the United States I / Unit 9 USH1 1212 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Clock, Two Ways
The idea
In the same decades that the clock became an instrument of factory discipline, it became an ordinary household possession. The anchor records that clocks, which had once been quite expensive, were now within the reach of most ordinary people. Clock parts were among the goods farm families made under the putting-out system, particularly in Connecticut, so the same industrial process that put clocks in parlours also put them on factory walls.
In practice
A worker docked several hours' pay for five minutes, going home to a clock bought with the wages that remained.
Where people slip
Hold both meanings at once. The clock is evidence of industrial abundance and an instrument of industrial control, in the same decade, for the same people. A course that teaches only the abundance produces a story about rising living standards; a course that teaches only the control produces a story about exploitation. The anchor supplies both and the exam rewards seeing that they are the same fact.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for History of the United States I