INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION: WHEN MACHINES REPLACED MUSCLE (1865–1900)* By Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D. (Anthropology, UCLA) Between the Civil War and 1900, steam power and electricity replaced human muscle. Railroads stretched across the continent. Telegraphs, telephones, and typewriters accelerated business. Coal and oil powered factories and lit city streets. None of this happened naturally. Inventors and business …








