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Chapter 19 TOWARD AN URBAN SOCIETY, 1877–1900

Chapter 19 TOWARD AN URBAN SOCIETY, 1877–1900. America Past and Present. The Lure of the City. City becomes a symbol of the new America between 1870–1900 Explosive urban growth Sources included immigration, movement from countryside Six cities over 500k by 1900

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Chapter 19 TOWARD AN URBAN SOCIETY, 1877–1900

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  1. Chapter 19TOWARD AN URBAN SOCIETY, 1877–1900 America Past and Present

  2. The Lure of the City • City becomes a symbol of the new America between 1870–1900 • Explosive urban growth • Sources included immigration, movement from countryside • Six cities over 500k by 1900 • Three: NYC, Chicago, & Philadelphia had >1M p.540

  3. Skyscrapers & Suburbs • Steel permits construction of skyscrapers • Made possible by the Bessemer process • Louis H. Sullivan, architect who studied at MIT & in Paris,invented the skyscrapper • Streetcars allow growth of suburbs • Streetcar cities allow more fragmented and stratified city • Middle-class residential rings surrounding business & working-class core p.540-541

  4. Tenements and theProblems of Overcrowding • Tenements house working class • James Ware and dumbbell design • Tenement problems • Overcrowding • Inadequate sanitation • Poor ventilation • Polluted water • Urban problems • Poor public health • Juvenile crime p.541-543

  5. Strangers in a New Land • 1890: 15% of U.S. population was foreign-born • Most immigrants moved for economic reasons & entered through Ellis Island (next slide) • Cong sought to keep immigration under control (i.e., keep out undesirables) • By 1900, most urban dwellers foreign-born or children of immigrants • 1880s: Eastern, southern European immigrants prompt resurgent Nativism • Nativist organizations try to limit immigration p.543-547

  6. Ellis Island p.544-545

  7. Immigration to the United States, 1870–1900 p.543

  8. Foreign-born Population, 1890 80% of NYC residents were of foreign birth/parentage. p.546

  9. Immigrants and the City:Families and Ethnic Identity • Immigrants marry within own ethnic groups & have more children than native-born Americans • Immigrant associations • Preserve old country language & customs, aid adjustment • Irish Benevolent Society, “We visit our sick & bury our dead” • Deutsch-Amerikanischer Nationalbund, 2M members in several cities • Polish National Alliance • As new immigrants entered American society they clung to the customs of their native countries p.547-548

  10. The House That Tweed Built • Urban party machines headed by “bosses” • Most famous of the urban political bosses in the late 19th century was William Tweed of NYC • Most trade services for votes • Why bosses stayed in power • Good organizational skill • Helped immigrants • Most bosses improve conditions • Role of bosses can be over emphasized p.548-550

  11. Social & Cultural Change 1877–1900 • End of Reconstruction marks shift of attention to new concerns • Population growth • 1877: 47 million • 1900: 76 million & more diverse • Urbanization, industrialization changing all aspects of American life p.550-551

  12. Urban and Rural Population, 1870–1900 (in millions) p.550

  13. Manners & Mores • Victorian morality prescribed strict standards of dress, manners, & sexual behavior • Children were to be seen but not heard • Older children were often chaperoned • Religious values strong • 80% were church attending Protestants • Most of the rest were Roman Catholic • With slavery abolished, reformers turned to to new issues • Women’s Christian Temperance Union • Frances E. Willard p.551-552

  14. Leisure & Entertainment • Domestic leisure: card, parlor, yard games • Sentimental ballads, ragtime popular • Entertainment outside home • Circus immensely popular • Street lights, streetcars make evening a time for entertainment and pleasure • Most popular spectator sport was baseball • Increase in spectator sports indicated the increased amount of leisure time p.552-553

  15. Changes in Family Life • Urbanization, industrialization alter family • Family life virtually disappears among poorly paid working class • Suburban commute takes fathers from middle-class homes • Domesticity encouraged, women housebound, child-oriented consumers • White middle-class birth rates decline • 1800 = 7, 1880 = 4, 1900 = 3 p.554

  16. Changing Views: A Growing Assertiveness among Women • "New women”: Self-supporting careers • Demand an end to gender discrimination • 1890: Many states were beginning to allow women to control their earnings & inherit property • Speak openly about once-forbidden topics • New interest in psychology & medicine made it “possible” to discuss sexual issues, childbirth which were formerly held as “taboo” p.554-555

  17. Educating the Masses • Trend is toward universal education: By 1900, 31 states & territories had compulsory education • Purpose of public education was to train people for life & work in industrial society • Teaching unimaginative, learning passive, Webster’s Spellers and McGuffey’s Readers Wm H. McGuffey (since 1836) • 1896: Plessy v. Ferguson allows "separate but equal" schools p.555-557

  18. Higher Education • Nearly 150 colleges & universities founded between 1880 & 1900 • Many by govt grants • Some by private philanthropy • Leland Stanford = Stanford U in California ~ $24M • J.D. Rockefeller = U of Chicago ~ $34M • Greater emphasis on professions & research & away from training ministers • 1876: Johns Hopkins University: First separate graduate school • Increasing # of women admitted to college p.557-558

  19. Higher Education:African Americans • African Americans usually confined to all black institutions • Booker T. Washington ~ Tuskegee Institute • Concentrated on practical/trades education • W.E.B. Du Bois ~ Had attended Harvard • Advocated professional degrees in medicine, dentistry, & law • Believed educational advancement was the key to success p.558-559

  20. The Stirrings of Reform • Social Darwinists see attempts at social reform as useless & harmful • Things are the way they are ~ Just wait for evolution • The laws of nature apply to sociology • Herbert Spencer, “Survival of the fittest” • Reformers begin to seek changes in U.S. living, working conditions p.560

  21. New Currentsin Social Thought • Clarence Darrow rejected Social Darwinism, argued poverty at crime’s root ~ 40 yr career ~ Lawyer • Richard T. Ely’s “Younger Economics” urged govt intervention in economic affairs • Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class asserted that classic economic “laws” were masks for human greed • Liberal Protestants preach "Social Gospel" • Purpose: Reform industrial society • Means: Introduce Christian standards into the economic sphere p.560-561

  22. The Settlement Houses • Famous Houses • 1886: Stanton Coit’s Neighborhood Guild, New York • 1889: Jane Addams' Hull House, Chicago • 1892: Robert A. Woods’ South End House, Boston • 1893: Lillian Wald’s Henry Street Settlement, New York • Characteristics • Many workers women • Classical, practical education for poor • Study social composition of neighborhood p.562-563

  23. A Crisis in Social Welfare • Depression of 1893 reveals insufficiency of private charity • New professionalism in social work • New efforts to understand poverty’s sources • Increasing calls for government intervention • Social tensions engender sense of crisis p.564-565

  24. The Pluralistic Society • Immigration & urban growth reshaped American politics & culture • By 1920, most Americans lived in cities & almost half of them were descendants of people who arrived after the Revolution • Society experienced a crisis between 1870 & 1900 • Reformers turned to state & federal government for remedies to social ills p.564

  25. Chapter 19TOWARD AN URBAN SOCIETY, 1877–1900 America Past and Present End

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