Section 4

Growth of Education Before 1870, fewer than half of American children went to school In the North, most states passed laws that required children to attend school, usually through the 6 th grade

Education contd. In the South, the Freedmen’s Bureau built grade schools for both African American and white students In cities such as Boston and New York, public schools taught English to young immigrant children also learned the duties and rights of citizens

High School and Colleges By 1900, The United States had 6,000 high schools Many states built universities that offered free or low cost education to young men and women. However, African American and other nonwhites like Chinese had fewer opportunities to get a college education

Public Libraries Wealthy individuals like Andrew Carnegie gave money to towns and cities to build public libraries. Libraries were more than places to find books and magazines

Headlines and Scandals The number of newspapers grew dramatically after By 1900 half the newspapers printed in the world were printed in the United States Many immigrants learned English by spelling their way through a daily newspaper

Scandals contd. Stories about Greek, Slavic, Polish, and Italian communities helped establish Americans understand their immigrant neighborhoods They also gave a sense of being a New Yorkers, Chicagoans, and Bostonians

Two Newspaper Giants Joseph Pulitzer created the first modern, mass circulation newspaper. Pulitzer was a Hungarian immigrant. In 1883, he bought the New York World. To win readers, Pulitzer slashed the price to 2 cents, and added sports pages and comic strips

Giants contd. He introduced pictures and bold headlines to make stories more exciting Under Pulitzer’s guidance, circulation of the World soared from 20,000 to 1 million

Giants contd. William Randolph Hearst, who came to New York from San Francisco, soon challenged Pulitzer. He bought the New York Journal and began to print more scandals, crime stories, and gossip than the World

Giants contd. Critics coined the phrase yellow journalism for the sensational reporting style of the World and the Journal

Women Journalist Newspapers added special sections on fashion, social events, health, homemaking, and family matters A few women, like Nellie Bly worked as reporters. Once Bly pretended to be insane in order to find out the treatment of the mentally ill

New Reading Habits Each magazine had its own special audience. The Ladies’ Home Journal appealed to middle class women By 1900, it had one (1) million readers. Other magazines such as Harpers Monthly and the Nation specialized in article about politics and current events

Habits contd. In the late 1800’s paperback books became popular. Bestsellers were often dime novels. These low-priced paperbacks offered thrilling adventure stories

Tales of rags to riches Horatio Alger, a popular writer, produced more than 100 children's books. Most told the story of a poor boy who became rich and respected through hard work and honesty

Riches contd. They offered hope to the poorest person could become rich and successful in the United States In the 1880’s a new crop of writers appeared. They were called realists. These people wanted to show life just as it was

Riches contd. Stephen Crane wrote one novel about a girl who is born and dies in a filthy slum He is best known today for the Red Badge of Courage, a short story the Civil War

Riches contd. Paul Laurence Dunbar was the first African American to make a living as a writer. He wrote such poems as “We Wear the Mask”, in a serious elegant style.

Mark Twain The Most famous author of this time period was Samuel Clemens, better known as his pen name, Mark Twain Twain had an eye and an ear for “local color”. That is he described the special features of a region and captured the way people spoke in different parts of the nation

Mark Twain contd. Twain’s best known works were Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer

Realism in Art Winslow Homer, a young man during the Civil War drew battle scenes for magazines. Later he painted realistic scenes of brutal battles

Art contd. Another realist, Thomas Eakins studied in Europe, but his style was unique to America. He paid great attention to detail

Art contd. One African American student painter, Henry Tanner, who later movies to Paris to escape prejudice

Art contd. The painter Mary Cassatt was born in Pennsylvania but settled to Paris, she painted in bright, colorful scenes of people in everyday life.