Fredrich Engles argued that automatic machinery was the ultimate despot over a work force instead of small capitalist that employed the masses, and Engles was correct in stating so. The invention of factories operating mainly on machinery lead to a societal shift in which humanity came second to money. In medieval times it can be seen in the creation of factories and slums surrounding them, work conditions, and in the United States it can be seen in the shift from a nation of small business to one of tycoons and mass production. Overall, the automatic machinery used in factories created a drudge labor force and ruined the image and environment of the areas it surrounds.
Within "Civilizing the Machine" by Kasson, the first nation that is examine is Manchester in which Alexis de Tocqueville concluded that this new industrial nation displayed the end of civilized society. "Heaps of dung, rubble from buildings, putrid, stagnant pools... Look up and all around this place you will see the huge palaces of industry." Tocqueville in describing the area surrounding factories in this way displays the exact notion of Engles in that the automatic machinery was a cruel despot…show more content… Those who manned the machinery worked in twelve-hour shifts, meaning production never stopped, when a group clocked out another clocked back in. Kasson writes, "English factory towns in the first half of the nineteenth century as centers of advanced technology but also cancers against both nature and society... producing an oppressed, ignorant, and debauched working class and threatening the civilization as a whole." With industrialization being depicted as a cancer it is clear to see that while automatic machinery provided a faster means of production it also created an oppressed work force that was worse off than working under the shortsighted small capitalists who previously employed
