Chapter 15 – Section 2 & 3Urbanization & The Gilded Age

Americans Migrate to the CitiesUrban population – those living in a town of 2,500 or more

From 1870 to 1900 the urban population increased from 10 million to 30 million

U.S. went from 131 cities in 1840 to 1,700 in 1900

Most city dwellers, including immigrants, had no money to buy either farms or higher education

Rural Americans found cities highly preferable to the country

The New Urban Environment

Higher population density required new methods of city planning

Skyscrapers – important because the value of land made it prohibitively expensive, but there was no restriction on building up rather than out

Louis Sullivan – known as the “father of skyscrapers”; pioneered a modernist look in American cities

The New Urban Environment

Mass transit – horses and buggies are not meeting the needs of cities anymore

Cable cars and electric trolleys became common in large cities

Even well-designed public transportation led to traffic problems, so cities either built elevated rail lines or subways

Separation by ClassWealthy elites do not want to live near the poor

For rich families, the goal was for one’s estate to imitate a favored style of European architecture – emulating the nobility of Europe

Working class, in contrast, usually lived in crowded tenements (multi-family apartments)

Average annual income for an industrial worker was $445

Separation by Class

Rise of the Middle Class

Middle class annual income was about twice that of the working classes

Middle class included professionals like doctors, lawyers, engineers, managers, social workers, architects, and teachers

Urban Problems

• Crime• Violence• Disease• Poverty• Fire• Pollution

Murder rate rose substantially during this era

Americans generally blamed immigrants for the increase in violence

Urban Problems

Cheap alcohol contributed to both violent crime and poverty

Drinking was prevalent, and not limited to adults

City had no effective way to transport clean water to its citizens, while also moving sewage out of the city• horse manure• smoke• ash and dust

Urban PoliticsMajor cities were controlled by political machines

political machine – informal political group designed to gain and keep power

Machines were led by party bosses, the men who dispensed the patronage

Parties helped immigrants get jobs, housing, food, heat, police protection

In return, the machine gets votes

Urban Politics

Political machines were also moneymakers

Because the party bosses dispensed so much patronage, they always had “friends” willing to help them out

Public contracts were the most lucrative form of corruption – remember the Credit Mobilier scandal

Tammany Hall

The grandest and most famous of the political machines

Led by William M. “Boss” Tweed

So, in one way there was a kind of government that provided basic services and social security, but it happened at the party level rather than the national level

Sec 3 The Gilded Age

Mark Twain and Charles Warner co-wrote the novel, The Gilded Age in 1873

The term “gilded” refers to something that is gold on the outside while the inside is made of something cheaper

Horatio Alger, a minister from Mass., left the clergy, moved to New York, and wrote over 100 novels about rags-to-riches stories

One series was called “Luck & Pluck”

Focus on work ethic, personal ambition, self-made success stories.

Social Darwinism

Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher, first proposed the idea of Social Darwinism

Why are some people rich and others poor?

Who is supposed to do something about the problems of the poor?

What causes poverty? Spencer taught that the theory of

natural selection and evolution applied to human society

He believed that human society evolved through competition

The Gospel of Wealth

Carnegie’s ideas became known as his Gospel of Wealth

This philosophy pushed philanthropy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Giving_in_the_US_2009.png

Realism

Realism was a new movement in art and literature that portrayed people in realistic situations

Period Literature

Mark Twain wrote the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1884

Twain is thought to have written the first true American novel

Realism also influences literature, not just the art world

Pop Culture

Pop culture changed as people began to have more time and money

The saloon became a community and political center for men

Popular Culture

Coney Island in New York was an amusement park that became popular

People now had leisure time (more money, better standard of living,

Labor movement (unions) making gains for workers (weekend, overtime pay, 8 hour day)

Watching sports became a national pastime

Baseball & basketball

Popular Culture Continued

Ragtime was a music that became very popular during the time period.

Vaudeville shows toured the country