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Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations
This event provided us with a basis for liberalism (classical liberalism). Without Adam Smith’s theories of laissez faire, or the invisible hand, and capitalism. Without the publication The Wealth of Nations where these theories were contained, classic liberalism may not have emerged at the time it did. -
Factory Act
The factory act was a piece of legislation that allowed children and women to no longer be exploited as workers. This limited the hours they could work in a day as well as implemented certain rules to keep them safe while working. This not only changed liberalism by introducing more of a government voice, but also made work safer/leveled the playing field in terms of work. This made it so that certain places weren’t better/safer to work at rather enabled worker equality and safety. -
Karl Marx - The Communist Manifesto
The idea of communism would change the thoughts towards capitalism because of their contrasting nature. Some of the differences are in views of government involvement, possession of property, and class distinction. This changed classic liberalism by providing a contrasting viewpoint which some then supported and other rejected. In years to come these two ideologies would lead to wars, and overthrowing of governments. -
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Theodore Roosevelt in Office
During the time the Theodore Roosevelt was in office he was able to implement the Square Deal. The square deal essentially helped out the middle class, and prevented plutocracy and bad trusts from taking advantage of their workers, and made the factories/places of business more accountable therefore making is safer to work. By him implementing the Square deal he changed classical liberalism by increasing the amount of government involvement. -
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
This event was instrumental in changing classic liberalism into modern liberalism because of the amount of people that died because of bad business practices. This event lead to the formation of Unions, namely the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), which then fought for better working conditions for those who worked. By the creation of an Union ones no longer moved to take interest that would only benefit themselves, but now showed an interest in others. -
Henry Ford began making Ford Model T
Henry Ford was instrumental in the creation of the consumer class, or the middle class. By creating products that were cheap enough for the average man to purchase, accompanied by higher than average wages he was able to create this new class. This promoted the equality of classes, and lessened of a distinction of poor and wealthy. This changed liberalism by not allowing the gap between rich and poor to increase further, but rather to introduce a middle class that could better promote equality. -
Ammendment Extending Women Sufferage
This event really changed society by giving women a more active role in society. This changed liberalism to favour equality of all regardless of gender. Prior to the amendments, classic gender roles were still active. Women at this time essentially had no active role in society, rather than any work they had. The women's suffrage movement promoted the equality among men and women, and provided women with an active role within government decisions (voting). -
October 1929 Stock Market Crash
This event was one of the worst stock crashes in the history of the US. This event lead to the great depression, or commonly known as the “Dirty Thirties”. This event changed people's viewpoints with regards to capitalism. After the great depression and the crash of the stock market, they suddenly saw the importance of government involvement. -
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The Great Depression
From this event after the economic downturn of the economy and the environmental disasters, ones began to see the real need of government involvement. Prior to this event ones saw government involvement as a hinderance on the happiness and freedom of individuals, yet once economic turmoil reared it’s ugly head they now realized that the power government had was actually beneficial to them. -
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Franklin D. Roosevelt in Office
The new deal was preceded by Theodore roosevelt's Square deal, but some of the ideas were rather similar. The purpose of the New Deal was to help needy Americans, eradicate poverty and unemployment, and improve level of the economy (as they were in the great depression at the time. To simplify this it was referred to as recover, relief, and reform. This changed liberalism by making the people more trusting of government, and seeing the benefits of having government involvement.
