1860-1910 population grew from 6 million to 44 million. 1920more than half of the nation's population lived in urban areas. Urban growth created immense problems of health and morale.
1860-1910 population grew from 6 million to 44 million. 1920more than half of the nation's population lived in urban areas. Urban growth created immense problems of health and morale.
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1860-1910 population grew from 6 million to 44 million. 1920more than half of the nation's population lived in urban areas. Urban growth created immense problems of health and morale.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Chapter 21: The Emergence of Urban America Outline
I. America’s Move to Town
A. Explosive Urban Growth 1. 1860-1910 population grew from 6 million to 44 million 2. 1920- more than half of the nation’s population lived in urban areas 3. Flow of population toward cities greater than the flow toward the West westward migration= urban movement 4. Pacific coast had greater proportion of population more urbanized than anywhere else 5. San Francisco and Los Angeles- boomtowns after the arrival of the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe Railroads in the 1880s; Seattle- city that grew quickly, first as the terminus of three transcontinental railroad lines and, by the end of the century, as the staging area for the Yukon gold rush 6. Minneapolis, St. Paul, Omaha, Kansas City, and Denver- grew into big cities from mere villages in the 1860s; Durham, North Carolina and Birmingham, Alabama- centers of tobacco and iron production; Houston, Texas- handled cotton and cattle, and later, oil 7. Heating- innovations in 1870s such as steam circulating through pipes and radiators, contributed to the building of multiple- apartment dwellings 8. Electric elevator- 1889, Otis Elevator Company- installed the first electric elevator, which made possible the erection of taller buildings cast-iron and steel-frame structures enabled the construction of skyscrapers, which depend on steel frames and girders 9. Steam-driven cables- 1873, San Francisco first city to use cars pulled by steam-driven cables 1890s preferred electric trolleys 10. Subway systems- mass transportation; Boston, New York, Philadelphia 11. “streetcar suburbs”- where the growing middle class retreated from downtown and could travel into the central city for business or entertainment (though laborers generally stayed put, unable to afford the nickel fare) B. The Allure and Problems of the Cities 1. Tenement houses usually six to eight stores tall and jammed tightly against one another, housed twenty four to thirty two families 2. Poorly heated and had communal toilets outside 3. Disease and odors rampant 4. Mortality rate among poor higher than that of general population 5. 1900- Manhattan’s 42,700 tenements housed almost 1.6 million people 6. Unregulated urban growth created immense problems of health and morale C. City Politics 1. Local committeemen, district captains, and a political boss 2. Bosses granted patronage favor (awarding city jobs to supporters) and engaged in graft, buying votes and taking kickbacks, provided needed services 3. In return, felt entitled to some reward for having done grubby work of local organization D. Cities and the Environment 1. Overflowed with garbage, contaminated water, horse manure, roaming pigs and untreated sewage 2. Water- related diseases caused by the raw sewage dumped into streets and waterways; included cholera, typhoid fever and yellow fever that ravaged populations 3. Animal waste- a) Life expectancy of urban draft houses, only two years, which meant that thousands of horse carcasses had to be disposed of each year b) 1900- 3.5 million horses which generated 20 lbs. of manure and several gallons of urine each c) Caused stench and bred countless flies that led to diseases such as typhoid fever; benefits included fertilizer for hay and vegetable crops 4. Development of public water and sewer systems and flush toilets- ppl presumed that running water purified itself, so they dumped waste into rivers/bays algae blooms II. The New Immigration A. America’s Pull 1. 1900- 30% of residents of major cities foreign-born 2. 8.8 million in 1900 3. Push factors- took flight from famine, cholera, lack of economic opportunities in their native lands, compulsory military service or racial, religious and political persecution 4. Pull factors- railroads, cheap labor sent recruiters abroad, Contract Labor of 1864 5. Contract Labor Act of 1864- a) Federal government itself encouraged immigration: it allowed companies to recruit foreign workers by passing for their passage and then recouping the money from the immigrants’ wages b) Law repealed in 1868, but not until 1885 did the government forbid companies to import contract labor, a practice that put immigrants under the control of their employers B. A New Wave 1. Proportion of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe rose sharply 2. 70% of immigrants to U.S. C. Ellis Island 1. 1892- opened its door to “huddled masses” of world 2. 1907, busiest year, more than 1 million new arrivals passed through the receiving center 3. Average of about 5,000 per day D. Making Their Way 1. Padrones- agents of immigrant-aid societies that would offer men jobs in mines, mills, or sweatshops and some whiskey and in return claimed a healthy percentage of their wages a) Known by Italians and Greeks, came to dominate labor market in NY b) Others provided training tickets 2. Immigrant enclaves- immigrants practiced their religion, clung to native customs and conversed in native tongue a) Older residents typically moved out when new residents moved in b) Little Italy, Little Hungary, Chinatown E. The Nativist Response 1. Expressed anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic sentiments 2. Assumption that Nordic peoples of old immigration superior to Slavic, Italian, Greek and Jews of new immigration 3. Illiterate, couldn’t speak English 4. Henry Cabot Lodge- a) Congressman from MA b) 1891, took up causes of excluding illiterates, would have affected much of new wave of immigrants even though literacy in English not required c) Passed many times but vetoed by Presidents Cleveland, Taft and Wilson 1917, Congress overrode Wilson’s veto 5. Exclusion against Chinese: not white, not Christian; many literate began in 1880 when urgent need for railway labor ebbed 6. Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882- a) Authorizing ten-year suspension of Chinese immigration treaty with China permitted U.S. to regulate, limit and suspend Chinese immigration b) Periodically renewed before being extended indefinitely in 1902 c) Not until 1943 were barriers to Chinese immigration removed 7. Angels Island- a) West Coast counterpart to Ellis Island b) Six miles offshore from San Francisco, tens of thousands of Asian immigrants, most of them Chinese c) Over 30 percent of arrivals denied entry III. Popular Culture A. Vaudeville 1. Derives from French word meaning play accompanied by music 2. Early “variety” shows featured comedians, singers, musicians, blackface minstrels, farcical plays, animal acts, jugglers, gymnasts, dancers, mimes and magicians 3. All social classes and types B. Saloon Culture 1. Poor man’s social club in late nineteenth century 2. Offered free lunch and liquor 3. Public homes popular among male immigrants seeking friends and companionship 4. Aligned with politics 5. Women and children occasionally entered through side doors, “snugs” (small separate rooms for female patrons) 6. Anti-liquor societies- charged that saloons contributed to alcoholism, divorce, crime and absenteeism from work; Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League C. Outdoor Recreation 1. Frederick Law Olmstead- 1850s, design and plan Central Park; designed parks for Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Philadelphia and SF 2. Public Parks- places where people could walk and commute; offered vigorous forms of exercise and recreation; croquet lawns and tennis courts 3. Cycling “wheeling”- 1870s, especially popular with women who chafed at restricting conventions of Victorian era 4. Ethnic groups, especially Germans and the Irish, formed male singing, drinking or gym clubs 5. Amusement Parks- provided entertainment for the entire family; Brooklyn’s Coney Island D. Workingwomen and Leisure 1. Married women had little free time washing clothes, supervising children or shopping at local market provided opportunities for fellowship with other women 2. Single women had more opportunities- dance halls, theaters, amusement parks, picnic grounds, beaches 3. Movie theaters- most popular form of entertainment for women, especially single women 4. Escape, pleasure, companionship and autonomy E. Spectator Sports 1. Saloons posted scores, athletic rivalries by railroad systems, unified diverse ethnic groups 2. Football a) Modified form of soccer and rugby b) First college football game between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869 3. Basketball a) Invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith when he nailed two peach baskets to the walls of the YMCA in Springfield, MA wanted to create an indoor winter game b) All female Vassar and Smith Colleges added the sport in 1892 c) 1893, Vanderbilt became the first college to field a men’s team 4. Baseball a) Invented by Alexander Cartwright, a NY bank clerk and sportsman; 1845- Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of NY b) First professional baseball team= Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869 c) 1900- American League, 2 years later- World Series d) People from all social classes (mostly men) attended games e) only white players allowed in major leagues, African Americans played on “minor league” teams or in all-black Negro leagues IV. Education and the Professions A. The Spread of Public Education a) Determination to “Americanize” immigrant children b) By 1920, 21 million pupils in public school c) 6,000 secondary schools by turn of century B. Higher Education a) Colleges- discipline and morality with curriculum heavy on math and classics, along with ethics and rhetoric b) History, language, literature and some science tolerated, lab science limited c) 600,000 students and 1,000 institutions by 1920 d) Elective systems e) State universities in West more open to women f) Vassar= first women’s college to teach by same standards as men’s college g) Wellesley and Smith- 1870s, women’s schools in MA; Smith being first to set admission requirement same as men’s colleges h) Graduate school- German system; 1890s, doctorate degree became requirement for professorship V. Realism in Thought, Culture, and Literature - Realism- last half of nineteenth century; focus on emerging realities of scientific research and technology, factories and railroads, cities and immigrants, wage labor and social tensions; horrors of civil war - Empirical science- second half of nineteenth century; breakthroughs in chemistry, discoveries of fossils and geology and paleontology and improved microscopes and zoology A. Darwinism and Social Darwinism 1. Darwinism: Charles Darwin a) On the Origin of Species (1859) b) “natural selection” c) Idea of evolution shocked people who held conventional religious views in that it contradicted literal interpretation of creation stories in Bible d) Eventually people reconciled science and religion 2. Social Darwinism: Herbert Spencer a) First major prophet of social Darwinism b) Believed human society and institutions, like plant and animal species; passed through process of natural selection, “survival of fittest c) Individual freedom inviolable and government interference with competitive process of social evolution mistake d) Endorsed hands-off government e) Charity= voluntary f) Successful businessmen and corporations were engines of social progress g) No trusts or monopolies B. Reform Darwinism 1. Lester Frank Ward- Dynamic Sociology (1883) 2. Human brain could plan for and shape future, unlike animal’s 3. Humanity could actively shape process of societal improvement 4. Reform Darwinism held that cooperation, not competition would best promote progress 5. Government is best agency of progress by striving first to rid of poverty 6. Promoted education of masses C. Pragmatism 1. William James- Harvard professor; Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907) a) Shared with Ward’s concern with role of ideas in evolution b) Pragmatism believes that ideas gain validity not from inherent truth but from social consequences and practical applications c) Inventive, experimental spirit that recognize science and society are characterized by change rather than fixity 2. John Dewey- chief philosopher of pragmatism a) Instrumentalism- ideas were instruments for actions, especially for promoting social reform b) Unlike James, threw himself into movements for rights of labor and women, promotion of peace and reform of education c) Believed education to be process through which society would gradually progress toward greater social equality and harmony VI. Realism in Fiction and Nonfiction A. Mark Twain 1. Native of MI; printer, MS riverboat pilot, Confederate militiaman 2. Moved to CA, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1865) 3. Roughing It (1872), moved to Hartford, CN and became full-time author 4. First significant writer born and raised west of Appalachian Mtns. 5. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) 6. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1844) B. Literary Naturalism 1. Scientific determination into literature, viewed people as pretty to natural forces and internal drives without control or full understanding of them 2. Frank Norris- McTeague (1899)- madness of SF dentist and wife, driven by greed, violence and lust 3. Stephen Crane- a) Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893)- tenement girl driven to prostitution b) The Red Badge (1895)- evokes fear, nobility, and courage amid the carnage of the Civil War c) Both portrayed people caught up in environments beyond control 4. Jack London- a) Socialist and believer in German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s doctrine of superman b) The Call of the Wild (1903) and The Sea Wolf (1904)- brute force and will to survive 5. Theodore Dreiser- a) Dissected celebration over the power of social and biological forces, disturbing to readers b) Shocked public with protagonists who sinned without remorse and without punishment c) Sister Carrie (1900)- survives illicit loves and goes on to success on stage C. Social Criticism 1. Henry George- a) Critic of naturalists, set out to protest and reform b) Vowed to seek out cause of poverty in midst of industrial progress he saw around him c) Basic social problem= “unearned increment” in wealth d) Progress and Poverty (1879) e) Held that everyone had a basic right to the use of land f) Proposed to tax the “unearned” increment in value of land or rent 2. Thorstein Veblen- a) Critic of naturalists b) Background of formal training in economics and purpose of making subject into an evolutionary or historical science c) The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)- conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure: showy display of money and property became conventional basis of social status VII. The Social Gospel A. The Rise of the Institutional Church 1. Reverend Henry Ward Beecher- pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn preached material success, social Darwinism and unworthiness of poor 2. Churches followed to the streetcar suburbs 3. Fell under the spell of complacent respectability and do-nothing social Darwinism 4. Acquired gyms, libraries, lecture rooms, and other facilities in an effort to draw working-class people back to organized religion 5. Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)- created in response to dangers of Protestantism losing working-class consistency in 1850s from England; grew rapidly after 1870 6. Salvation Army- created in response to dangers of Protestantism losing working-class consistency in 1850s from England in 1879 B. Religious Reformers 1. Church reformers who feared that Christianity was becoming irrelevant to the needs and aspirations of the working poor began preaching social gospel 2. Washington Gladden- a) From Columbus, Ohio b) Preached the social gospel- true Christianity resided not in rituals, dogmas, or even the mystical experience of God but in principle to love others as one’s self c) Christian law should govern workplace d) Attacked social Darwinism and argued labor’s right to organize, supported maximum-hours laws and factory inspections, and endorsed anti-trust legislation VIII. Early Efforts at Urban Reform A. The Settlement House Movement 1. Staffed mainly young middle-class idealists, many of them college-trained women who had few other outlets for meaningful work 2. Sought to broaden horizons and improve lives of slum dwellers in diverse ways 3. Provide workingmen with alternative to saloon as place of recreation and alternative to neighborhood political boss as source of social services 4. Organized political support for tenement laws, public playgrounds, juvenile courts, mothers’ pensions, workers’ compensations laws and legislation prohibiting child labor 5. By 1900, 100 in US, best known= Jane Addams and Ellen Starr’s Hull-House in Chicago and Lillian Wald’s Henry Street Settlement in NYC B. Women’s Employment and Activism 1. With the rapid population growth in the late nineteenth century, number of employed women increased as did percentage of women in labor force 2. Susan B. Anthony- a) Veteran of women’s rights movement b) Demanded Fifteenth Amendment guarantee vote for women as well as black men after Civil War c) Founded National Woman Suffrage Association to support suffrage amendment to Constitution with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but they looked upon suffrage as but one among many feminist causes to be promoted 3. National Woman Suffrage Association- founded to support suffrage amendment to Constitution by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but they looked upon suffrage as but one among many feminist causes to be promoted 4. American Woman Suffrage Association- formed by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and other leaders which focused single- mindedly on vote as first and most basic reform 5. National American Woman Suffrage Association- combination of National Woman Suffrage Association and American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890 after three years of negotiation; Elizabeth Cady Stanton= president, then Susan B. Anthony till 1900; carried after by Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Chatt 6. Wyoming- provided full suffrage to women in 1869 as a territory and after 1890 retained women’s suffrage when it became a state 7. Idaho, Utah and Colorado- granted full suffrage to women after Wyoming 8. New York- granted full suffrage to women in 1917, first in state east of MS River to adopt universal suffrage 9. Young Women’s Christian Association- 1866, parallel to YMCA, appeared in Boston and spread everywhere else 10. New England Women’s Club- 1868, Julia Ward Howe and others; early example of women’s clubs that proliferated to such an extent that a General Federation of Women’s Clubs was established in 1890 to tie them together nationally 11. New York Consumer’s League, National Consumer’s League- 1890; 1899- sought to make buying public, chiefly women, more aware of degrading labor conditions C. Toward a Welfare State 1. Laws passed by state to regulate railroads and working conditions poorly enforced or overturned by states 2. Government steps in to help those who are suffering 3. Supplied temporary jobs, food, or other necessities; precursors to modern welfare state 4. 1880s- slow erosion of free-market values, dependence on government