The Great City

Chapter 18

The Urbanization of
America

Migration from the

Countryside to Urban
Centers dominated
American life

This was the case all

over the world as it
became more
industrialized

The Lure of the City

Urban population
increased by 7 times
from 1863-1913
1920most
Americans lived in
urban areas

What is an urban
area?2,500
people or more

1860

1890

New York
City

1
million
people

3
million
people

Chicago

100,00
0
people

1
million
people

Causes of Urban
Growth

Immigrationpeople from other countries

coming to the U.S. and urban centers

National MigrationAmericans moving to

urban centers

Opportunities for African Americans

Opportunities for Woman
More readily available work
Excitement of living in a city

National Migrations

Geographic Mobilitypeople had the ability to move

quickly, safely and cheaply

Rural Farm life was limited for woman so they moved to

cities

How was rural life limited for women?

Southern Blacks moved to cities

Because of bigotry and racist segregation and violence in the

south
There were jobs up northAlthough factory jobs were rare
(most African Americans worked as servants in cities: cooks,
janitors, general labor, etc.)

Immigrants

1860-192028 Million immigrants came to the U.S.

Most from Europe (West Coast had Asian and

Mexican Immigrants)

1880Italians, Greeks, Russian Jews, and Slavs

1890half of all Immigrants came from South
Eastern European Countries

Early Immigrants were educated and had modest

wealth

That changedwhy?

The Ethnic City

189087% of Chicago were foreign born,

80% of New York, 84% of Milwaukee and
Detroit

New York had more Irish than Dublin and

more Germans than Hamburg

Cities were extremely racially and culturally

diverse

This was both strength and weakness of cities

Immigrant Ghettos

Ghettoa section of a city, especially a

thickly populated slum area, inhabited
predominantly by members of an ethnic or
other minority group, often as a result of
social or economic restrictions, pressures, or
hardships.

Brought the Old World with them to the New

World
Offered familiarity and belonging to immigrants

Same food, culture, way of life, no language

barriers

Jews and Germans advanced economically

Assimilation

Assimilationthe act of becoming a part of something

Most immigrants were young 15-45

Wanted to be True AmericansAmericanization

Encouraged by native born Americans

Supported by churches and public education

Changing Gender Roles

America allowed immigrant woman more freedom

Arranged marriages were not popular in the U.S.
It was acceptable for women work outside the home
More acceptable for women to be on their own.

Exclusion

The counter attack to assimilation/Americanization

Nativismnative born American prejudice against

foreigners

Immigrants were blamed for the ills of society

Why? Was this prejudice blind or was it based on who was

coming to the U.S.?

Laws tried to curb immigration but failed

Immigration fueled economic growth as a ready and

cheap source of labor

American Protective
Association

Founded by Henry
Bowers in 1887

Stood against
Catholic Immigrants

Had over 500,000

members

Immigration Restriction
League

Another national
organization that stood
for strict restriction on
immigration

Believed immigrants
should be screened
through literacy tests
separating the
desirables from the
undesirables

The Urban Landscape

Cities stood in contrast: the poor were VERY

poor, the rich were VERY rich

Small middle class

Cities struggled with how to keep the poor

and wealthy separated

The Creation of Public

Spaces

1850scities started to
be planned

Urban Parks

Antidote to urban
crowding and congestion

Fredrick Law Olmstead

and Calvert Vaux
architects of New Yorks
Central Park

Believed in Natural
Spaces

Central Park

Central Park

Central Park

Public Buildings

City Planners, architects, wealthy people, and

government officials started advocating public
buildings

Libraries, museums, galleries, concert halls,

theaters, hospitals, etc.
Wealthy citizens became philanthropic patrons
who donated money for public buildings

This came with the immortality of having ones

name and recognition assigned to a building:
Carnegie Hall

Housing the Rich

Housing was an issue in Citiesthe rich

wanted to be away from the poor, the poor
couldnt afford to live far from where they
worked, etc.

Growth of Suburbsmodeled after

countryside

Why? How do the suburbs look like the

countryside?

The rich owned houses and buildings, the

poor had to rent

Strains of Urban Life

Urban Life was hard

and dangerous due
to

Crime
Fire
Disease
Poverty

pollution

Urban Families

Experienced

High infant mortality rates

Declining fertility
High death rate from disease
Harsh living conditions

SO?????

Why did people live in cities?

Housing the Poor

The Poor could not afford to own so they rented

High demand for scarce space gave a lot of

power to landowners

Manhattan Population Density in 1894

143 people per acre of land average (304 sq ft

per person)
700 people per acre in the slums (64 sq ft per
person)

Tenements

Multi-family dwellingsusually apartment buildings

Located in the slums

At first tenements were a great improvement for poor

people instead of literal shacks

Many were windowless rooms

Little to no plumbing
Privies (toilets) in the basement

Jacob Riis

Author and photographer who documents tenement living

Wrote How the Other Half Lives
Sensationalized writing that exploited the plight of the poor.

Tenement Apartment

Tenement Apartment

Riiss Most Famous

Photo

City Block

Urban Transportation

Paved streets opened

congestion and allow for
quicker, safer travel
within cities

Paved Roads

Most were paved with

wooden blockswhere
we get the term block
from, meaning a section
of a city

Later brick, stone and

asphalt

Urban Transportation

Street Cars

Horse drawn cars

that ran on tracks
were the first public
forms of mass
transportation

Boston, New York,

Chicago,
Washington DC,
Philadelphia

Urban Transportation

New York City

1887

First Elevated Railway

Steam powered

Urban Transportation

1887

Boston

First American
Subway (not the
disgusting sandwich
shopshame on you
for eating that
YUCK!)

Urban Transportation

1880s

New York

Brooklyn Bridge

Opened the Island of

Manhattan to the
other burrows of New
York

Engineering Marvel

The Skyscraper

Cast iron, steel

beams, and
elevators allowed for
taller buildings (over
5 floors)

1890s skyscrapers
started to be built
(10 or more floors)

Why is this important

for cities?

Human Waste Problems

Early Efforts at urban

sewage disposal
frequently

Used open ditches to

remove waste

Helped the spread of

disease

Polluted the cities

fresh water supply

Failed to provide
clean conditions

The Urban Political

Machines

Urban Political Machines

helped newly arrived
immigrants adjust to
American life
In return these Bosses
(elected officials) could
count on support from
voting immigrants
Political bosses were the
primary source of
welfare for the urban
poor.

Goals of the Political

Machines
1. Make money for
political bosses
(officials)
2. Provide services to
immigrants
3. Create city jobs for
machine supporters
4. Find jobs for the
unemployed

The Rise of Mass

Consumption

Mass Consumptionthe production and sale

of inexpensive everyday items that came
about at the end of the 1800s

Growth of middle class gave rise to mass

consumption

Middle class people could afford to buy lots of

things in quantity
The most popular mass consumption items were
the making and marketing of ready-made
clothes
Middle class women were most effected by
mass consumptionwhy?

Patterns of Income and

Consumption

Society changed, as did the market place,

with the growth of the middle class and their
growing income

This lead to

The emergence of Department Stores

The making of large amounts of affordable
products
The creation of marketing and advertisement
The rise of chain stores

Department Stores

Giant have everything

destination stores

Offered a wide range of

diverse productsbras and
guns

Created a shopping
atmosphere of excitement

Made shopping an activity

and glamorous

Large quantities of goods

lowered prices

Hudsons

Inside Hudsons Detroit

Hudsons Now

Popular Culture in the

late 1800s

Popular forms of entertainment

Vaudeville
Musical comedy
Moviessilent movies
Professional baseball
Theatre

Movies became the first truly universal massentertainment medium which reached all over the
country and all levels of society

Why?

Yellow Journalism

A popular
style of
journalism
that was
popular in
the early
1900s that
used a
sensational,
lurid style of
reporting.

Art in the early 1900s

Authors like Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser wrote very popular
novels about the mistreatment of the poor in urban industrial society.
Artists began painting realistic scenes of ordinary life

Education in the Early

1900s

Industrialization created a need for

specialized skills and scientific knowledge, the
educational system answered these needs
through
1. Growth of womens colleges
2. Rise in free public education
3. An increase in the number of colleges and
universities
4. Growth of universities in western states

Women in the early

1900s

Graduates of Womens colleges formed the

first intellectual womens group who
1. Worked together for reform (divorce laws,
suffrage, etc.)
2. Frequently married much later in life
3. Were career based instead of family based
4. Became faculty in womens colleges
5. Started by philanthropic institutions

Civilizing the Indians

Programs were created to civilize Indians

through white-run, reservation schools

They failed in large part to

A lack of long term commitment and funds

The teaching and administration was poor
The ideas of transforming culture was
unpopular with the Indians
White educators showed hostilities towards
tribal culture

Review Question 1
Because of rapid growth in the latter nineteenth century,
American cities:
a) protected traditional social and cultural values.
b)provided services and facilities inadequate to demands.
C) witnessed the flight of factories and corporate offices to
newer, less crowded locations.
D) supported efficient and honest governments.

Review Question 2
An important population trend that occurred in the United
States from 1860 to 1910 was:
a) a gradual decline of the rural population.
B) the mass movement of urban population of all classes
from city centers to suburbs.
C) a population shift from the North to the South.
D) a faster rate of growth for the cities than for the
general population.

Review Question 3
The movement of blacks from the rural South to industrial
cities began during the latter nineteenth century
because of :
a)poverty and oppression in the South.
B)prospective professional opportunities in the cities.
C)the abundance of factory jobs in the North for blacks.
D) the lack of racial discrimination in the North.

Review Question 4
The new immigrants of the latter nineteenth century settled
primarily in Eastern industrial cities because they:
a)lacked the capital to buy land and begin farming in the
West.
B)found immediate employment as unskilled factory
workers.
C) found refuge and camaraderie among fellow nationals
there.
D) All of the above

Review Question 5
The formation of ethnic neighborhoods by immigrants in
American cities:
a)tended to preserve significant aspects of the cultural
values of their previous societies.
B)resulted from discriminatory zoning restrictions.
C)prevented their identification with and advancement
in American society.
D) intensified a sense of not belonging to a coherent
community.

Review Question 6
Nativist reaction against European immigrants of the latter
nineteenth century resulted from all of the following factors
except the:
a) arrival of vast numbers of immigrants.
B)refusal of most immigrant groups to try to assimilate
themselves into American culture.
C) generalized fears and prejudices against foreigners.
D) economic concern that immigrant workers would

threaten the wages and positions of American workers.

Review Question 7
Which of the following was not a trend contributing to the rise of
mass consumption in latter nineteenth-century America?
A) The emergence of ready-made clothing as a basis of the
American wardrobe.
B) The breakup of marketing monopolies held by national chain
stores.
C) The development of canned food and refrigerated railroad
cars.
D) The emergence of great department stores and mail-order
houses.

Review Question 8
The theory of evolution:
a) supported traditional American beliefs about the nature
of man and history.
B) et uniform resistance from middle-class Protestant
religious leaders.
C) gained greater acceptance in rural rather than urban
areas.
D) influenced new ways of thinking in the social sciences.

Things to Know for the

Test

Problems of urban growth

Why people were coming/moving to cities

Groups of people who migrated to cities

Immigrants vs. migrants

Which immigrant group advanced quickest

Assimilation/Americanization

exclusionists

Things to know for the

Test

Housing in cities

The work of Jacob Riis

Hazards/dangers of the city

Urban sewage problems

Urban political machine

Who provided the most welfare to immigrants

in cities

What was boss rule

Things to know for the

Test

Mass Consumption and its affects

Change of incomes in the late 1800s

Department stores and their impact

What dominated popular culture in the late

1800s

Yellow journalism

Late 1800s authors and what they wrote

about

Things to Know for the

Test

The Theory of Evolution and its impact on

society

The need for specialized scientific skills and

knowledge

The civilization of the Indians

Womens colleges and their impact on society