Daily life in the Industrial age was ever-changing, unsettling, outright dangerous, and often thrilling. Electric power turned night into day, cities swelled with immigrants from the countryside and from Europe, and great factories belched smoke and beat unnatural rhythms while turning out consumer goods at an astonishing pace. Distance and time condensed as rail travel and telegraph lines tied the vast United States together as never before.

First-hand accounts from workers, housewives, and children help illuminate the significant achievements of the era and their impact on the everyday lives of ordinary people. Readers will learn of a broad range of personal experiences, while comprehending the importance of the economic and social developments of the period. A chronology, a glossary, more than 40 photographs, and further reading sources complete the work.