Day 101: America Moves to the City

1. Day 101: America Moves to the City Baltimore Polytechnic Institute February 8, 2012 A.P. U.S. History Mr. Green

2. America Moves to the City Objectives: Students will: Describe the rise of the American industrial city, and place it in the context of worldwide trends of urbanization and mass migration (the European diaspora). Describe the New Immigration, and explain how it differed from the Old Immigration and why it aroused opposition from many native-born Americans. Discuss the efforts of social reformers and churches to aid the New Immigrants and alleviate urban problems, and the immigrants’ own efforts to sustain their traditions while assimilating to mainstream America. AP Focus Industrialization sparks urbanization, and cities become magnets for immigrants. Those who can afford to leave behind the hustle and bustle of urban life move to the budding suburbs. See the table in The American Pageant (13th ed., p. 560/14th ed., p. 598). Demographic Changes is an AP theme. The late nineteenth century sees a surge of immigration, now from eastern and southern Europe. Most encounter living and working conditions not appreciably better than what they had left. The tenement floor plan (13th ed., p. 561/14th ed., p. 599) shows typical living conditions for impoverished urban workers.

3. Chapter Focus Chapter Themes In the late nineteenth century, American society was increasingly dominated by large urban centers. Explosive urban growth was accompanied by often disturbing changes, including the New Immigration, crowded slums, new religious outlooks, and conflicts over culture and values. While many Americans were disturbed by the new urban problems, cities also offered opportunities to women and expanded cultural horizons.

4. Announcements Focus Questions Chapter 25-Due Today Hand-in Now!!!!!

5. The Appeal of the Press Growth of the public library Carnegie contributed $60 million for 1,700 libraries By 1900-9,000 free circulating libraries in U.S. Causes for demand in literature Linotype Sensationalism sex, scandal, human-interest stories Yellow Journalism William Randolph Hearst Joseph Pulitzer

6. Apostles of Reform Henry George single-tax idea 100% tax on windfall profits from selling property Edward Bellamy “Looking Backward” Main character wakes up in the year 2000 to see America a socialist state

7. Postwar Writing “Dime novels” or paperbacks virtue triumphed General Lewis Wallace Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ anti-Darwinist crowd Horatio Alger juvenile fiction survival of the purest non-drinkers, non-smokers, nonswearers Walt Whitman “O Captain! My Captain!” Emily Dickinson published after her death

8. Literary Landmarks Samuel Langhorne Clemens Mark Twain The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Stephen Crane “Red Badge of Courage” Charles Francis Adams History of the US. During the Admin of Jefferson and Madison Paul Laurence Dunbar Charles W. Chesnutt realism black dialect “Sister Carrie”

9. The New Morality Anthony Comstock “Comstock Law” sexual purity-confiscated “obscene pictures, items used for abortions Increases in divorce rates Women had a sense of a new morality as a result of working women’s independence

10. Families and Women in the City Emotionally isolated places increase divorce rate work habits family size National American Woman Suffrage Association Linked suffrage to traditional definition of women’s roles Most states by 1890 permitted wives to own/control property after marriage Excluded African-Americans

11. Prohibiting Alcohol and Promoting Reform Increase in liquor consumption after the Civil War immigrants accustomed to the Old Country Women’s Christian Temperance Union Frances E. Willard Carrie Nation Anti-Saloon league American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Red Cross-1881

12. The Business of Amusement Vaudeville Minstrel shows Circus Baseball Basketball Football Boxing Croquet condemned for showing female ankles and flirtation Safety Bicycle

13. Discussion-Review 1. What new opportunities and social problems did the cities create for Americans? 2. In what ways was American urbanization simply part of a worldwide trend, and in what ways did it reflect particular American circumstances? How did the influx of millions of mostly European immigrants create a special dimension to America’s urban problems? 3. How did the New Immigration differ from the Old Immigration, and how did Americans respond to it? 4. How was American religion affected by the urban transformation, the New Immigration, and cultural and intellectual changes?

14. Continued 6. How did American social criticism, fiction writing, and art all reflect and address the urban industrial changes of the late nineteenth century? Which social critics and novelists were most influential, and why? 7. How and why did women assume a larger place in American society at this time? (Compare their status in this period with that of the pre–Civil War period described in Chapter 16.) How were changes in their condition related to changes in both the family and the larger social order? 8. What was the greatest single cultural transformation of the Gilded Age? 9. In what ways did Americans positively and enthusiastically embrace the new possibilities of urban life, and in what ways did their outlooks and actions reflect worries about the threats that cities presented to traditional American democracy and social ideals?

15. Homework • Begin Reading first ½ of Chapter 26 • Chapter 25 Focus Questions Due on Monday. No late assignments will be accepted.