Chapter 25: America Moves to the City

1. Chapter 25: America Moves to the City In the late 19th century, American society was increasingly dominated by large urban centers. Explosive urban growth was accompanied by often disturbing changes, including New Immigration, crowded slums, new religious outlooks, and conflicts over culture and values. While many Americans were disturbed by the new urban problems, cities also offered opportunities to women and expanded cultural horizons. African Americans suffered the most as the south lagged behind other regions of the country in regard to educational improvements and opportunities. Two schools of thought emerged as to the best way to handle this problem. Booker T. Washington advocated that blacks should gain knowledge of useful trades. With this would come self-respect and economic security. Washington avoided the issue of social equality. W.E.B. DuBois demanded complete equality for blacks, both social as well as economic.

2. The Urban Frontier • Population of U.S. cities tripled from 1870-1900. • Most cities boasted over 1 million people. • Key features of a city: • Skyscrapers • Elevators • Mass transit • The lure of the city was steady employment. • Urban lifestyle could include but not always: • Electricity • Indoor plumbing • Telephones • Skyscrapers with elevators • Bridges • Department stores

3. The Urban Frontier • Negatives of city life: • Increased consumerism • Excessive waste (garbage) • Crime • Lack of sanitation in some areas • Gap between social classes • Slums • “Dumbbell tenement” = crowded, lack of ventilation, filth, disease

7. The Urban Frontier • Vocab/Terms: • Megalopolis- An extensive, heavily populated area, containing several dense urban centers. • Pauper- A poor person, often one who lives on tax-supported charity. • Tenement- A multidwelling building, often poor or overcrowded. • People: • Louis Sullivan-Chicago-based architect whose high-rise innovation allowed more people to crowd into limited urban space.

8. The Urban Frontier • American cities had both excitement and opportunity but also severe social problems caused by rapid and uncontrolled growth. • The U.S. was not unique in the growth of its cities. European cities were growing just as rapidly. • The consumer economy came about from the rise of large department stores. • One of the most difficult new problems generated by the rise of urban areas was disposing of large quantities of waste. • By 1900 American cities were becoming: • More heavily populated. • More segregated by race and ethnicity. • More segregated by occupation.

9. The New Immigration

10. The New Immigration • Vocab/Terms: • Despotism- Government by an absolute or tyrannical ruler. • Tenement- A multidwelling building, often poor or overcrowded.

11. The New Immigration • New Immigrants: • Tried to preserve their old country culture in America. • Lacking assimilation. • Parochial schools for Catholics and Jews. • Foreign-language newspapers. • Restaurants. • Were from southern and eastern Europe. • Tended to settle in northeastern cities. • Were seeking economic opportunities. • Had often been mobile before coming to America.

12. Southern Europe Uprooted • Vocab/Terms: • Tenement- A multidwelling building, often poor or overcrowded. • Parochial- Concerning a religious parish or small district. • The term is often used negatively to refer to narrow or local perspectives.

13. Southern Europe Uprooted • The largest root cause of the new immigration was the inability of the European economy to support millions of peasants who were driven off the land. • The primary countries in which immigrants were coming were Poland and Italy. • The push factors driving out tens of millions of European peasants were an attempt to impose compulsory state education on tradition-minded parents.

14. Reactions to the New Immigration • Vocab/Terms: • Social Gospel- The religious doctrines preached by those who believed that churches should directly address and work to reform economic and social problems. • Closely linked with the settlement house movement. • Settlement House- Mostly run by middle-class native-born women. They set up houses in immigrant neighborhoods to provide housing, food, education, child care, cultural activities, and social connections. • Hull House- Settlement house in the Chicago slums that became a model for women’s involvement in urban social reform.

15. Reactions to the New Immigration • People: • Jane Addams- Leading social reformer who lived with the poor in the slums and pioneered new forms of activism for women. Opened Hull house in Chicago. • Florence Kelley- Advocate for women, children, and blacks during the age of new immigration and reform. • William James- Harvard scholar who made original contributions to modern psychology and philosophy. • Walter Rauschenbusch- Leading Protestant advocate of the social gospel who tried to make Christianity relevant to urban and industrial problems.

16. Reactions to the New Immigration Walter Rauschenbusch Jane Addams Florence Kelley

17. Reactions to the New Immigration • Besides providing direct services to immigrants, the reformers of Hull House worked to implement social reforms such as anti-sweatshop and child labor laws to protect women and child laborers. • Female social workers established settlement houses to aid immigrants and promote social reform, while also advancing women’s opportunities.

18. Reactions to the New Immigration

19. Narrowing the Welcome Mat • Vocab/Terms: • American Protective Agency- Nativist organization that attacked New Immigrants and Roman Catholics in the 1880’s-1890’s.

20. Narrowing the Welcome Mat • The APA supported immigration restriction laws. • Many nativists tended to blame the New Immigrants for: • Corruption of city government. • Low industrial wages. • Degradation of life in American cities. • Importing alien social and economic doctrines. • The one immigrant group that was totally banned after 1882, as a result of fierce nativist agitation was the Chinese.

21. Churches Confront the Urban Challenge • Vocab/Terms: • Social Gospel- The religious doctrines preached by those who believed that churches should directly address and work to reform economic and social problems. • Fundamentalists- Protestant believers who strongly resisted liberal Protestantism’s attempts to adapt doctrines to Darwinian evolution and biblical criticism.

22. Churches Confront the Urban Challenge • People: • Mary Eddy Baker- Founded the Christian Science Church in 1879. • She preached that the true practice of Christianity heals sickness. • Wrote a book titled Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

23. Churches Confront the Urban Challenge • American Protestantism was dominated by liberal denominations that adapted religious ideas to modern culture and promoted a social gospel rather than biblical literalism. • Religious modernists found ways to reconcile Christianity with Darwinism. • The religious groups that grew most dramatically were Jews, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox. • They initially clustered in their own neighborhoods, places of worship, and schools. • Orthodox Protestant churches were being challenged by: • The theories of Darwin. • The mounting emphasis on materialism. • The social doctrines of Catholicism and Judaism.

24. Darwin Disrupts the Churches • Vocab/Terms: • Fundamentalists- Protestant believers who strongly resisted liberal Protestantism’s attempts to adapt doctrines to Darwinian evolution and biblical criticism.

25. Darwin Disrupts the Churches • Almost all American Protestants rejected Darwinism and adhered to literal interpretations of the Bible. • Traditional American Protestant religion received a substantial blow from the biological ideas of Charles Darwin.

26. Darwin Disrupts the Churches • By 1875, the church had split. • Conservative minority rejected Darwinism, asserted authority of the Bible. • Fundamentalists • Accomodationists tried to merge Christianity and Darwinism.

27. The Lust for Learning • Vocab/Terms: • Parochial- Concerning a religious parish or small district. • Chautauqua Movement- sought to bring learning, culture and, later, entertainment to the small towns and villages of America.

28. The Lust for Learning • People: • Mark Twain- Midwestern-born writer and lecturer who created a new style of American literature based on social realism and humor.

29. The Lust for Learning • In the late 19th century, secondary education was increasingly being carried out in public schools. • Education in the post-Civil War era witnessed an increase in compulsory school-attendance laws. • Growing belief that society will function if the majority are educated. • Better teacher training. • Introduction of kindergarten. • Decline in illiteracy.

30. Booker T. Washington andEducation for Black People • Vocab/Terms: • Philanthropist- A person or organization that works to benefit society through uncompensated gifts, services, or benefits.

31. Booker T. Washington andEducation for Black People • People: • Booker T. Washington- Former slave who promoted industrial education and economic opportunity but not social equality for blacks. • W.E.B. DuBois- Harvard-educated scholar and advocate of full black social equality through leadership of a talented tenth.

32. Booker T. Washington andEducation for Black People • Unlike Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois advocated advanced education and complete political and social equality for blacks. • Booker T. Washington advocated practical, technical education for blacks, not academic rigor or education for political leadership. • The “talented tenth” of American blacks should lead the race to full social and political equality with whites was the view of W.E.B. DuBois.

33. Booker T. Washington andEducation for Black People • Washington became a teacher at the Tuskegee Institute in 1881. • He later became the head of the school. • Accused of being an accommodationist-accepting white racism. • DuBois accused Washington of selling out the race. • DuBois was the first African-American to earn a degree from Harvard. • He founded the NAACP in 1910.

34. The Hallowed Halls of Ivy • Vocab/Terms: • Philanthropist- A person or organization that works to benefit society through uncompensated gifts, services, or benefits. • Morrill Act- Provided generous grants of public land to the states for support of education.

35. The Hallowed Halls of Ivy • American colleges and universities benefited especially from federal and state land-grant assistance and the private philanthropy of wealthy donors. • Growth in women’s and black’s colleges. • Colleges were offering more choices of study (majors). • Medical schools led to new technology in public health.

36. The March of the Mind • Vocab/Terms: • Pragmatism- The American philosophical theory, especially advanced by William James, that the test of the truth of an idea was its practical consequences.

37. The March of the Mind • People: • William James- Harvard scholar who made original contributions to modern psychology and philosophy.

38. The March of the Mind • The philosophy of pragmatism maintains that what is important is the practical application of an idea.

39. The Appeal of the Press • Vocab/Terms: • Syndication- In journalism, featured writing or drawing that is sold by an organization for publication in several newspapers. • Yellow Journalism- Sensationalist journalism practiced with unethical, unprofessional standards. • Tycoon- A wealthy businessperson, especially one who openly displays power and position.

40. The Appeal of the Press • Urban newspapers often promoted a sensational yellow journalism that emphasized scandal rather than politics or social reform. • Cheap, mass circulated publications. • Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst

41. Apostles of Reform • People: • Henry George- Controversial reformer whose book, Progress and Poverty, advocated solving problems of economic inequality by a tax on land.

42. Apostles of Reform • Henry George advocated utopian reforms to end poverty and eliminate class conflict. • He found the root of social inequalities in the behavior of landowners who provided the space for the production of goods. • He argued that the unearned profits of those who did not work for them should be confiscated by government taxation.

43. Postwar Writing • People: • Horatio Alger- Popular novelist whose tales of young people rising from poverty to wealth through hard work and good fortune enhanced Americans’ belief in individual opportunity. • “Rags to Riches”

44. Literary Landmarks • People: • Mark Twain- Midwestern-born writer and lecturer who created a new style of American literature based on social realism and humor. • Henry Adams- Well-connected and socially prominent historian who feared modern trends and sought relief in the beauty and culture of the past.

45. Literary Landmarks • Authors like Mark Twain and Jack London turned American literature toward a greater concern with social realism and contemporary problems. • Post-Civil War writers like Mark Twain favored social realism in their fiction. • Late 19th century novelists often pursued themes of rugged realism, the American West, and the corrupting influences of the city. • The era of the first ‘paperback’ novels. • Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

46. The New Morality • Vocab/Terms: • Comstock Law- Widely used to prosecute those who distributed information or devices for birth control was meant to stop trade of "obscene literature" and "immoral articles."

47. The New Morality • People: • Victoria Woodhull- Radical feminist propagandist whose eloquent attacks on conventional social morality shocked many Americans in the 1870’s.

48. The New Morality • With economic freedom came sexual freedom. • Rising divorce rate. • Birth control.

49. Families and Women in the City • Vocab/Terms: • Tenement- A multidwelling building, often poor or overcrowded. • Pragmatism- The American philosophical theory, especially advanced by William James, that the test of the truth of an idea was its practical consequences.

50. Families and Women in the City • People: • Charlotte Perkins Gilman- Brilliant feminist writer who advocated cooperative cooking and child-care arrangements to promote women’s economic independence and equality. • Carrie Chapman Catt- Pragmatic and business-like reformer who stressed the desirability of giving women the vote if they were to continue to discharge their traditional duties as homemakers and mothers in the increasingly public world of the city.