The Age of the City

1. The Age of the City Chapter 18

2. The Urbanization of America • The Lure of the City • population • 1865-1910 urban population increases x 7 • 1920 consensus: first time a majority of Americans were living in urban areas (2,500+) • New York: 1 million in 1860... 3 million 1900 • Chicago: 100,000 in 1860... 1 million 1900 • urban families • high infant mortality rate • declining fertility rate • high death rate from disease • why go? • conveniences • entertainment • jobs • experiences unavailable in rural communities • transportation: trains and ocean liners

3. The Urbanization of America Cont’d • Migrations • women • opportunities on farm limited • results in fewer family units on farms than before • influence of mail-order catalogs • blacks • poverty, debt, oppression in rural areas • factory jobs rare... professional jobs non-existent • 10,000+ communities in major cities by turn of 20th Century • immigrants • 10 million between 1860-1890 / 18 million 1890-1920 • Greatest number came from Eastern Europe • Early immigrants (Germans, not Irish) well educated and financed = buy land, start business... not the case with these immigrants... settled into urban areas to work unskilled jobs

4. The Urbanization of America Cont’d • The Ethnic City • 1890 foreign-born population and their children dominate urban centers • 87% of the population of Chicago (more Polish people than in Warsaw) • 80% of the population of New York (more Irish than in Dublin / more Germans than Hamburg) • 84% of the population of Milwaukee and Detroit • huge diversity • transition from native country to America • rural life to urban “immigrant ghettos” • staying together • fraternal organizations • native foods • newspapers and theaters • voting blocks • different values leading to different levels of advancement: solidarity v. integration • impact of racism: Africans Americans, Asians and Mexicans treated the worst

6. The Urbanization of America Cont’d • Assimilation • ethnic ties often “competed” against desire/need to assimilate • women: from arranged marriages to the workforce • Factors • English taught in schools • English only on the job • large stores selling American food and clothing • Church leaders encouraging parishioners to adopt to American ways

7. The Urbanization of America Cont’d • Exclusion • Haymarket reaction • Native workers animosity towards people willing to work for less • Henry Bowers 1887: American Protective Association (Anti-Catholic) • Immigration Restriction League: more sophisticated nativism • Few laws passed by Congress because many powerful Native-born Americans welcomed Immigration... business interests

8. The Urban Landscape • The Creation of Public Space • urban parks: one of the most important innovations of the Industrial Era • Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux teamed up to design Central Park • public buildings: libraries, art galleries, natural history museums, theatres, concert opera halls • rebuilding cities... European competition

9. The Urban Landscape Cont’d • Housing the Well-to-do • fashionable districts • suburbs and the rise of “clean air” and front lawns • Housing Workers and the Poor • space scarce + demand high = little bargaining power for renters = bad living conditions • 1894 Manhattan =143 people per acre • “Miserable Abodes” • South (Charleston, New Orleans, Richmond) = former slave quarters • Boston = wooden “triple deckers” • Baltimore and Philadelphia = brick houses • New York (like most cities) = tenements

10. The Urban Landscape Cont’d • Housing Workers and the Poor Cont’d • Tenement originally meant “multiple family rental building”, but by late 19th century the word had become synonymous with “slum” • windowless rooms • little/no heating • little/no plumbing • very crowded... three/four people into each room • Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives ... solution = raze the slum dwellings without replacing

11. The Urban Landscape Cont’d • Urban Transportation • paved roads (blocks, bricks or asphalt) • Streetcars drawn on tracks by horses... not fast enough • Cable Cars (New York, Chicago, San Francisco) • New York: filthy steam powered train • Boston: first American subway 1897 • 1880s: Brooklyn Bridge

13. The Urban Landscape Cont’d • The “Skyscraper” • no building taller than five stories • stairs • building techniques • Elevator and steel beams / 1850s and 1870s • 1870 The Equitable Building in New York = seven stories • steel girder construction • Louis Sullivan: large windows, sheer lines, limited ornamentation... emphasis on height

14. Strains of Urban Life • Fire and Disease • “Great Fires” • poor building planning • lack of public services... i.e. fire departments • 1906 Earthquake in San Francisco* • Great Chicago Fire • Disease • little understanding of the connection between poor sewage disposal and water contamination with outbreaks of diseases such as typhoid fever and cholera • flush toilets and sewer systems did not appear in cities until the 1870s... but the sewage went into streams and open ditches....

16. Strains of Urban Life Cont’d • Urban Poverty • private philanthropic organizations focus on “deserving poor” • Salvation Army in America (1879) • concentrated more on religious revivalism than on relief • Protestants v. Catholics • poor starving children “street arabs”... focus of reformers, but no lasting solutions to problems

17. Strains of Urban Life Cont’d • Crime and Violence • Poverty and overcrowding = increase in crime • 25 murders per million in 1880 / 100 murders per million in 1900... West and South... • Native born Americans likely to commit crimes as immigrants • Public officials recognize need for larger police force • rise of detectives • corruption and brutality • “Urban National Guard” build armories (?!)

18. Strains of Urban Life Cont’d • The Machine and the Boss • large/chaotic immigrant growth created a large, powerful political base • “The Boss” was chief organizer and ensured loyalty through many different means • Graft and corruption abundant • William M. Tweed (notorious boss/mayor) and Tammany Hall (New York machine) • corrupt... but accomplished • How it worked • power of organized, immigrant voters • connection to the wealthy who profited from their dealings with the bosses • structural weakness of government • “invisible government” provided an alternative to the inadequacy of the regular government • Turn of the century people began to call for structural changes in the nature of the city government

20. The Rise of Mass Consumption • Patterns of Income and Consumption • growth of middle class “white collar” workers... sharp increase in salary • working class incomes rose... but from a lower base and more slowly • male dominated labor (steel) salaries rose 1/3 from 1890 to 1900 • female, Mexican and Black dominated areas saw very little increases • supplemental incomes and boarders • ready made clothes = rise in personal style and fashion • improved diets = better health = life expectancy rose six years from 1900-1920 • tin cans and food • refrigerated railroad cars • iceboxes

21. The Rise of Mass Consumption Cont’d • Chains Stores and Mail-Order Houses • Chain Stores • Woolworths and A&P able to sell manufactured goods at lower prices than the local, independent stores with which they competed • many feared they would jeopardize the character of their communities • Mail-Order Houses • Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck • isolated people now on the cutting edge of fashion and technology

23. The Rise of Mass Consumption Cont’d • Department Stores • Marshall Field in Chicago... Macy’s in New York... Jordan Marsh in Boston... etc... • transformed the concept of shopping • brought together under one roof and enormous array of products • stove to create and atmosphere of wonder and excitement and to make it social • economics of scale to lower costs against the individual shops they competed with

24. The Rise of Mass Consumption Cont’d • Women as Consumers • more job opportunities for women... retail clerks, waitresses... • Florence Kelly & The National Consumes League... took the stance that women as consumers should be entitled to more rights • wages and working conditions • public life

25. Leisure and the Consumer Society • Redefining Leisure • Leisure previously scorned in America (Puritan culture) connection to laziness and sloth • Middle Class, Laborers and Farmers all found themselves with more time in the weekends and/or evenings (8 + 8 + 8) • Simon Patten goal of economy “should be an abundance of goods and the pursuit of pleasure” • intensely public character and the importance of “going out”

26. Leisure and the Consumer Society Cont’d • Spectator Sports • Baseball ... Alexander Cartwright v. Abner Doubleday • by the end of the Civil War 200 amateur teams existed • first salaried team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869 • 1903 First World Series... Boston Red Sox defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates • important business • attracted crowds as large as 50,000 (men) • most baseball players were laborers... almost all teams were in industrial cities where they could draw an audience from workers

27. Leisure and the Consumer Society Cont’d • Spectator Sports Cont’d • Football • originated in college scene • first game was between Princeton and Rutgers 1869 • similar to Rugby • use of “ringers” leads to establishment of Big Ten in 1896 • 18 College Students died and over 100 seriously hurt... NCAA formed 1910

28. Leisure and the Consumer Society Cont’d • Spectator Sports Cont’d • Basketball • Canadian Dr. James Naismith 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts • Boxing • long been a disreputable activity • adoption of Marquis of Queensberry rules (gloves and three minute rounds) • John L. Sullivan... heavyweight champion of the world in 1882 • Horse Racing (Kentucky Derby) • Gambling • “throwing” of 1919 World Series by the Chicago “Black” Sox • “fixed” boxing • horse racing • Women in Sports • limited early: tennis, golf, croquet • later: track, crew, swimming... challenged notion that vigorous exercise was dangerous to women

30. Leisure and the Consumer Society Cont’d • Music and Theater • many ethnic communities maintained their own theaters • distinctive American entertainment: the musical comedy • George Cohen, an Irish entertainer wrote songs such as “You’re a Grand Old Flag” • Irving Berlin, an Yiddish entertainer wrote songs such as “God Bless America” • Vaudeville entertainment... inexpensive variety show... could be shown in saloons • “blackface” performers

31. Leisure and the Consumer Society Cont’d • The Movies • Thomas Edison and others create technology of motion pictures in 1880s • Early movies plotless • D.W. Griffith (MGM) started silent epics such as The Birth of a Nation • audiences overwhelmingly white

32. Leisure and the Consumer Society Cont’d • Working-Class Leisure • street camaraderie • ethnically specific saloons • bare knuckle boxing... *opportunity to show strength and courage... something that the working world did not always provide them with • The Fourth of July • one of the few full days of leisure for working-class Americans • day of celebrating not just US independence, but the culture of individual groups • wealthy middle class stayed away from festivals • In the South • post-Civil War 4th celebrations were held by blacks in Charleston celebrating the Union • Once Reconstruction efforts failed, laws passed restricting blacks celebration redefining the meaning of the day to the Southern cause

33. Leisure and the Consumer Society Cont’d • Private Pursuits • Reading • dime novels (fiction... Wild West, scientific adventure) • novels of “moral uplift” (Horatio Alger) • women: romance, animals and children growing up (Little Women) • Music • middle class families placed high value on learning to play an instrument • sales of sheet music soared • classical v. ragtime

34. Leisure and the Consumer Society Cont’d • Mass Communication • newspapers become and important business • 1870 to 1910 the circulation of newspapers increased nearly nine fold... from under 3 million to more than 24 million...a rate 3x times as great as the pop. increase • reporters salaries increase • opinion separated from fact • telegraph and the national press service • yellow journalism • William Randolph Hearst controls 9 newspapers and two magazines • Joseph Pulitzer • deliberately sensationalized information in an effort to reach a mass audience

35. High Culture in the Age of the City • Separation into wealthy “high-brow” and working-class “low-brow” cultures • The Literature of Urban America • Mark Twain Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn... evoked an older more natural world • Stephen Crane The Red Badge of Courage and Maggie: A Girl of The Streets... powerful portrayal of the plight of the working class • Theodore Dreiser Sister Carrie exposed hardships of single women struggling in the city • details of hard labor and prostitution • Upton Sinclair The Jungle reveal the horrors of industrial capitalism • Kate Chopin The Awakening explored the oppressive features of traditional marriage

38. High Culture in the Age of the City Cont’d • Art in the Age of the City • Winslow Homer... vigorously American • Neil Whistler... one of the first Western Artists to incorporate Oriental concepts into American and European art • Ashcan school – captured realistic struggle of American life • John Singer Sargent - portraits • John Sloan – dreariness of American slums • George Bellows – vigor and violence of prize fights • Armory Show in New York City... “controversial”

39. High Culture in the Age of the City Cont’d • The Impact of Darwinism • Natural Selection as a challenge to the biblical story of Creation... attested that history was not the working out of some divine plan, but rather it was a random process dominated by the fiercest or luckiest competitors • Lead to two major divisions in American culture • Urban education vs. Christian (Protestant) Fundamentalists • Rich vs. Poor (Social Darwinism) • Lead to other major theories • Pragmatism: no idea or institution was valid unless it worked and unless it stood the test of experience • Edward Ross and Frank Ward urged applying the scientific method to the solution of social and political problems • growth of anthropology (and preservation of American Indians)

40. High Culture in the Age of the City Cont’d • Toward Universal Schooling • late 19th century was a time of rapid reform and change in American schools and universities • spread of free public primary and secondary education • 1860 there were only 100 public high schools in all of the USA • 1900 the number had reached 6,000 • 1914 12,000 • Rural Areas and the South (blacks) lagged far behind • Morrill Land Grant of the Civil War Era: federal gov. donated land to states for the establishment of colleges • 1865 states in the South and the West took advantage of the law • 69 “land grant” institutions were established in the last decades of the century • California (UC), Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin • Other Universities benefited from millions of dollars contributed by business tycoons • Columbia, Chicago, Harvard, Northwestern, Princeton and Yale • Other Philanthropists founded Universities in their name • Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Duke, Tulane, Stanford, Creighton

41. Made By: Jennifer Ong Made By: Jennifer Ong

42. High Culture in the Age of the City Cont’d • The Education of Women • public high schools • accepted women... but opportunities for higher education were rare • proponents of women’s colleges saw the institutions as places where female students would not be treated as “second-class” citizens, by predominantly male student bodies and faculties • women’s college = emergence of women’s community • education as liberating • college-aged women married later • continued professional carriers after marriage and motherhood