ABSTRACT
Since the middle of the nineteenth century, American life has been transformed by the rise of industrialism. As a result of vastly increased industrial productivity, the national wealth has grown tremendously and the standard of living has been constantly raised. Merchant capitalism gave way to industrial capitalism, and by 1900 another form of economic organization, finance capitalism, had emerged. The consolidation of industry and the concentration of economic power which developed produced a growing demand for public regulation of economic life. In the twentieth century the United States has become the greatest industrial power in the world.
