Post on 25-Dec-2015
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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....
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
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 (?!)
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
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
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
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
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
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”
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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”
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)
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
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