The Growth of Cities and American Culture

Nation of Immigrants

• Push vs. Pull Factors• Old vs. New Immigrants• The Statue of Liberty– Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled

masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Restrictions

• First: Chinese Exclusion Act 1882• Immigrants had to pass physical tests and pay

an entry tax• Groups against immigration– Labor unions– Nativists (American Protective Association)– Social Darwinists

Urbanization

• 1900: 40% of Americans lived in cities or towns

• 1920: More Americans lived in urban rather than rural centers

Look of cities

• Streetcars and subways• Elevated railroads• Bridges (Brooklyn Bridge 1883)

– All allowed people to live farther away from where they worked

Look of Cities

• Skyscrapers (Home insurance Company Building in Chicago=1st skyscraper)

• Ethnic neighborhoods

Suburban Growth

• Upper/middle class Americans move to the suburbs

• Opposite of Europe• Why?– Abundant land– Inexpensive transportation– Low cost housing construction– Racial and ethnic prejudice– American fondness for grass, privacy, and detached

homes

Boss and Machine Politics

• Political bosses ran city governments• Helped/managed immigrants for votes• Excessive greed and corruption– Example: Tweed Ring of NYC

Henry George

• Progress and Poverty– Brought attention to

inequalities of wealth brought on by industrialization

Jane Addams

• Founder of Hull House in Chicago– Provided social services

to poor immigrants – Idea of settlement

houses spread– Pushed for reforms in

American society in housing, women’s rights, and child labor

Walter Rauschenbusch

• Promoted Social Gospel– Application of Christian

principles to social problems

– Linking Christianity with Progressive reform

Families and Women in Urban Society

• Divorce Rates rose• Birthrate dropped

• 1890: Foundation of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association– Elizabeth Cady Stanton– Susan B. Anthony

Temperance and Morality

• Society for the Suppression of Vice– Anthony Comstock

• Women’s Christian Temperance Union– Frances Willard

• Antisaloon League– Carry Nation

Expansion of Education

• New Compulsory laws increased literacy rate to 90% of population

• Growth of Public Schools (early education)

• Higher Education Expansion– Land grant colleges

under Morrill Land Grants

– Philanthropy– Women’s Colleges

• Smith• Bryn Mawr• Mount Holyoke

Richard Ely

• Pointed out weaknesses of laissez faire capitalism

• Economics could solve problems of the day

Frederick Jackson Turner (historian)

• Studied dynamic process of actual human behavior and their effects on the environment

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (Law)

• Law should evolve with the times

• Future Supreme Court Justice

Clarence Darrow (Lawyer)

• Criminal behavior could be caused by a person’s environment of poverty, neglect, and abuse

W.E.B. Du Bois

• Advocated full equal rights for blacks

• Talented Tenth would lead the way

Realist Authors

• Mark Twain: Adventures of Huck Finn 1884• Jack London: Call of the Wild 1903• Stephen Crane: Red Badge of Courage 1895

Art

• Arrangement in Grey and Black

• Whistler’s Mother– James McNeill Whistler

Architecture

• Louis Sullivan – Chicago School

• Frank Lloyd Wright– Organic style

• Frederick Law Olmsted– Central park and U.S. Capitol Grounds

Popular Press

• Joseph Pulitzer: New York World• William Randolph Hearst: New York Journal– Both publications came to be known as yellow

journalism• Sensationalized stories not based on facts

Amusements Explode

• Barnum & Bailey Circus• Theaters• Vaudeville

• Why?• Gradual reduction of

working hours• Improved transport• Advertising• Decline of Victorian

Views

Spectator Sports

• Boxing• Baseball• Basketball• College Football

• Some spectator sports were embraced by different classes– Rich: Yachting, polo– Poor: Boxing, Football