The greatest single factor to spur the amazing industrialization of the post-civil war years was
a. mining
b. the railroad network
c. the steel industry
d. agriculture

b. The railroad network

Explanation:

The construction of the U.S. railroad network allowed a faster movement of raw materials and goods throughout the American territory. This promoted a faster capital growth rate, and when capital is abundant, industry ensues.

Mining, the steel industry and agriculture are only specific sectors that benefited from the construction of the U.S. railroad network. It was the railroad network that boosted growth.

the reform movements that arose during the antebellum period in america focused on specific issues: temperance, abolishing imprisonment for debt, pacifism, antislavery, abolishing capital punishment, amelioration of prison conditions (with prison's purpose reconceived as rehabilitation rather than punishment), the humane treatment of animals, the humane and just treatment of native americans, the establishment of public institutions for the care of the destitute, orphans, blind, and mentally ill, the establishment of public schools, the abolition of tobacco use, vegetarianism, health reform, homeopathic medicine, woman's rights (including, at first, especially the establishment of a woman's right to own property apart from her husband and her right to sue for divorce), and the amelioration of labor conditions (including higher pay, the right to form unions, the right to strike, and the demand for limits on the number of work hours, and safe working conditions).

explanation: