"Thomas R. Winpenny examines the formative years of the factory system in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the impact of industrialization on the community.The study focuses on the establishment of the Conestoga Steam Mills in the late 1840's and the following three decades. Professor Winpenny maintains that this industrial revolution brought progress and economic benefits without social upheaval and labor strife...Lancaster was able to absorb the factory system without discord because of local circumstances such as the wealth of the countryside, the stability of the long-established town, and the ready supply of resident workers. In a narrower variation of Thomas C. Cochran's geo-cultural concept, Winpenny argues that the character of the industrialization experience is molded by local conditions and that problems often associated with industrial progress are rooted in the environment in which industrialization occurs." [from a review of the book by Robert M. Blackson, Kutztown State College]
Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society ; v. 101, no. 3.
Notes
Originally published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, v. 166, no. 3 (July 1992).
Summary
This is a jounal article about a Lancaster physician who practiced in times before the founding of medical societies that served to standardize forms of conduct and treatment. The article recognizes the pressures he faced because of the competition from other doctors in the city. He is seen as a physician in "the middle" between serious practitioners and charlatans. He was professionally trained, but did dabble in patent medicines and a variety of pseudosciences.
Chapter: Thriving activity in a growing urban center, Lancaster's 18th century craft tradition ///The Lancaster artisan in 1819, the spectre of depression beyond the golden age /// Lancaster artisans in an industrializing society,1850 /// Changing work techniques as a key to persistence /// Cultural factors as a key to persistence /// The artisan in 1880 , adapting and surviving in a maturing industrial society
Summary
Examines how the industrial revolution affected the lives and work of artisans in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The author seeks to correct the historical assumption that the rise of the factory system brought nothing but misery and hardship by showing how Lancaster weathered the challenge successfully.
