From Cottage to Work Station: The Family's Search for Social Harmony in the Industrial Age Book

I've known that, for some, the industrial revolution was mostly a surge of economic corruption in America, but I haven't really accepted the idea myself... until this book. After all, factory efficiency is an all-around economic improvement, right? Think again.

Mr. Carlson has written an insightful account of America's (failed) attempts to guard the family in the 19th & 20th centuries. Every effort to restore the family in the age of industrialization tore it down 10-fold. As he catalogues these failed strategies, he identifies the fundamental principles that kept the family in decline, why America's well-meaning attempts backfired, and a proposal for how the family can be restored in the midst of an industrial society. You will see past the technological advances of industrialization, to the social revolution from familistic to atomistic.

Mr. Carlson is keen on understanding how family life has been effected by capitalism and modern government controls. This book has shaken my whole free-market capitalistic paradigm –something I've never expected to question.

Excellent resource for understanding the effects of industrialization on family life.

I recommend reading the whole book through, but if you want a cliff-notes version, read the last chapter —you will get the gist of the contents… and it might have you turning back into the book for more details on one (or two) of the strategies.