Essay Questions for Thinking through Sources 17

1. Celebrating industrialization: Based on these sources and the text of Chapter 17, construct an argument in celebration of the Industrial Revolution.
2. Criticizing industrialization: Construct an argument based on these sources and the text of Chapter 17 criticizing the Industrial Revolution.
3. Considering images and written documents as evidence: What are the strengths and limitations of visual sources, as compared to written documents, in helping historians understand the Industrial Revolution?
4. Distinguishing capitalism and industrialization: To what extent are these sources actually dealing with the Industrial Revolution itself, and in what ways are they addressing the economic system known as capitalism? How useful is this distinction for understanding the early industrial age?