Friedrich Engels’ “Single Branches of Industry” focuses on the diminished role of human workers in factories in almost every industry. The main idea in the article is that factory workers face numerous challenges in the line of duty including harsh treatment and hatred from masters as well as the loss of jobs due to the progress of mechanical invention.
“The Philosophy of Manufactures” envisions Andrew Ure’s idea that the factory system is the solution to all the problems experienced by man. The main idea is that mechanical invention or machinery should be embraced in factories to make man’s work less tedious. In line with this idea, the article believes that manufacturers should embrace machinery if they are to deal with problems such as endless turn-outs or strikes of workers.
The Lynds “Middletown” gives a suggestion of some of the recurrent manifestations of the process of social change, which are considered responsible for Middletown’s social problems. The main idea here is that the two major social problems for humans are the danger of not being completely objective in viewing a culture in which a person’s life is embedded and that no one phase of living can be adequately understood without a study of all the other phases.
“Moral Advice to Queen Victoria” highlights how opium was smuggled into China by western merchants under the British Empire and how it affected China’s history. The main idea is that the smuggling of opium resulted in adverse political and economic impacts within China. It is said that China needed aid from the Queen to help fight the smuggling of opium into the country, and this is why the moral advice was given.
The main idea of Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden” is that the Western world believed that the industrialization was the only way to civilize the Third World. It stresses the idea of colonization, which saw the US and other European countries conquer foreign lands and rob them of resources while imposing their way of life on the native populations.