Similarities Between Karl Marx And De Tocqueville

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The Industrial Revolution was a period in time that many people think changed the world only for the better. Even though the Industrial Revolution brought about many great inventions that have helped us become a great nation, no one recognizes how many lives it damaged in the process. Agricultural workers and especially factory workers had their health destroyed, and sometimes died, from the horrible working conditions that they were placed in. Many workers wrote about and testified in court about the terrible work environments they were put in, hoping to bring about some change and spread solutions to their problems. These people also managed to fit into the ideological and political frameworks of two of the greatest thinkers during this time period, Karl Marx and Alexis de Tocqueville. Although there were many workers who complained about the conditions they were placed in, one person who spoke out about them was William Cooper. William Cooper was a factory worker during the Industrial Revolution, whose life was altered for the worse because of his work situation. William Cooper’s testimony to the Sadler Commission from Wiesner’s book, is a great example of how bad workers during the Industrial Revolution had it. This interview begins with…show more content…
Shorter work hours, higher pay and just a cleaner overall work environment were becoming demands from workers. They realized that if these demands were met, they could live a longer and happier life and could be able to support their families better than they could have before. Just complaining about their situations was not enough to bring about a change. Karl Marx and Alexis de Tocqueville both wrote about how these changes could happen and how much they sympathize with the workers. Both William Cooper and Joseph Staley’s testimonies fit perfectly into the ideological and political frameworks that Marx and de Tocqueville have portrayed for
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