Urban LifeLesson 15-2 Urban Life

The Main Idea

In cities in the late 1800s, people in the upper, middle, and lower classes lived different kinds of lives because of their

different economic situations.

Reading Focus

• How did American cities change in the late 1800s?

• How did class differences affect the way urban dwellers lived?

• How did the settlement house movement work to improve living conditions for immigrants and poor Americans?

American Cities Change

• Compact cities– Before industrialization, cities had no tall buildings and

most people lived within walking distance of their work, schools, shops, and churches. In the late 1880s, they ran out of room and started to build up.

• Tall buildings and transportation – Steel frames and Elisha Otis’s safety elevator made

taller buildings possible. With mass transit, people moved farther away.

• Green spaces– Urban planning was used to map out the best use of

space in cities. Frederick Law Olmsted designed city parks to provide residents with countryside. New York’s Central Park is his most famous endeavor.

Class Differences

The wealthy in America inherited fortunes, but they made them from industry and business as well.

The newly rich made a point of conspicuously displaying their wealth. Grand city houses and magnificent country estates were commonplace.

•1870’s to 1890’s sometimes called “The Gilded Age”

High-society women read instructional literature detailing proper behavior. The ideal woman was a homemaker who organized and decorated her home; entertained visitors and supervised her staff; and offered moral and social guidance to her family.

Some women lent their time and money to social reform efforts.

Class Differences

The middle class

• The urban middle class grew as jobs for accountants, clerks, managers, and salespeople increased.

• Educated workers like teachers, engineers, lawyers, and doctors were needed.

• The rise of professionalism required standardized skills and qualifications for certain occupations.

• Married women managed a home. With time for other activities, some participated in reform work or other activities, expanding their influence to the outside world.

The working class

• Many lived in poverty, with a growing population keeping wages low.

• Housing shortages led to crowded and unsanitary tenement conditions.

• Housekeeping was difficult; with no indoor plumbing, water had to be hauled inside from a pump.

• Clothes were boiled on the stove and hung on lines to dry.

• Many women also worked low-paying jobs outside the home.

Class Differences

• Contagious diseases were a problem• Jacob Riis wrote book How the Other Half

Lives– About tenement living– Documented his reporting using flash

photography

Class Differences

• Fires were a constant threat• Great Chicago Fire in 1871• View photos

The Settlement House Movement

• London reformers

– Founded the first settlement house in 1884. Volunteers provided a variety of services to people in need.

– They taught skills people could use to lift themselves from poverty.

• Hull House – Jane Addams founded Hull House, one of the first settlement houses in

the U.S., and the movement spread quickly. The movement gave women the opportunity to lead, organize, and work for others.

• Religious views– The Social Gospel was the idea that religious faith should be

expressed through good works and that churches had a moral duty to help solve society’s problems.

– Social Darwinists disagreed; they felt people were poor because of their own deficiencies.