Consequences of Urbanization
Growth in Population 1860: No cities over 1,000, : Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York over 1M. Why the Sudden boom in population??? Increased transportation made commuting easier Growth of jobs Excitement and Opportunity New technologies growing Shopping ushers in consumerism Marshall Fields, Macy’s
City Life
Outcomes of Rapid Growth Sanitation issues Garbage disposal Consumerism/Materialism Horse waste Inadequate water services Poor human hygiene Air quality Criminal activities
Outcomes of Rapid Growth
Immigration Booms Old Immigrants Typically: Western European Light skinned Protestant Better educated From more liberal nations New Immigrants: Typically: Southern/Eastern Europe Darker skinned Less education Catholic/Jewish/Orthodox From despotic nations Why Come: Land of Plenty (America Letters) Religious toleration No military draft Good wages/jobs
American Response With Open Arms Tammany and other political machines With a Conscience preachers of the Social Gospel Jane Addams and Hull House With Anger and Resentment Nativists American Protective Association Anti-Immigrant Legislation
The Open Arm Theory Political Machines embraced immigrants jobs for votes money for votes housing for votes assist immigrant with state business assist with speeding up Naturalization Precinct captains and ward bosses were often 1 st or 2 nd generation immigrants so they helped immigrants with naturalization, jobs, and housing in exchange for votes
The Conscience Theory AKA The Social Gospel In American in 1880 Hull Settlement House Women’s activism Child-care Learn English Assimilate Job assistance
The Anti-Immigrant American Protective Association Protestants that were anti-Catholic “Observe immigrants…in their gatherings. You are struck by the fact that from ten to twenty per cent are hirsute, low-browed, big-faced persons of obviously low mentality… They…clearly belong in skins, in huts at the close of the Great Ice Age. These oxlike men are descendants of those who always stayed behind.” Labor Unions Immigrants cut wages/used as strikebreakers
Gilded Age Writers Henry George Edward Bellamy Lewis Wallace Walt Whitman Kate Chopin Emily Dickinson Mark Twain Stephen Crane Jack London Theodore Dreiser Progress and Poverty Looking Backward Ben Hur Leaves of Grass The Awakening Poetry assorted Huckleberry Finn Red Badge of Courage The Call of the Wild Sister Carrie