Arts and Charts

Conclusion

Nineteenth-century Americans lacked many of the resources for understanding - indeed, for constructing - the economy that are familiar to our lives today. As urbanization, industrialization, and the rise of corporations and high finance reshaped their economic world, they refined a visual culture that attributed economic change to providence, chance, and the machinations of the elite.

Consider: What political, economic, or ethical choices did these different narratives offer individuals seeking to shape the direction of economic development? Or those who simply sought to improve their position in the economic order? Who did these narratives cast as the primary victims of rapid economic change, as well as the primary beneficiaries? How might they have influenced political attitudes or business practices?

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