"When it comes to success the choice is simple. You can either stand up and be counted or lie down and be counted out!" - Maggie L. Walker
Developing the American Economy includes the stories about the ways Americans have worked, including slavery, servitude, and non-wage as well as paid labor. It also includes extraction, agriculture, production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Vital aspects of economic history are frequently manifested in regional centers, for example, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Montana illustrates ranching on the Great Plains. Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts represents both the lives of workers and technological innovations.
Stories of the diverse working experiences of the American people touch on the activities of farmers, workers, entrepreneurs, and managers, as well as the technology around them. It also takes into account the historical "layering" of economic society, including class formation and changing standards of living in diverse sectors of the nation. Knowledge of both the Irish laborer and the banker, for example, are important in understanding the economy of the 1840s.