1. America’s History Seventh Edition
James A. Henretta
Rebecca Edwards
Robert O. Self
America’s History Seventh Edition
CHAPTER 19
“Civilization’s Inferno”: The Rise and Reform of Industrial Cities,
Copyright © 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

2. 1. Describe this street.
(Answer: a crowd of people stops to watch the street be photographed; crowd of people are of mixed ethnicities; many appear to be immigrants of southeastern European descent; many children; food for sale from push carts; laundry hanging from the buildings; street is very crowded with a lot of activity.)
2. What does this photograph of Mulberry Street symbolize?
(Answer: streets just like this one existed throughout the northeastern United States and in growing mid-western cities such as Chicago; large numbers of immigrants were attracted to these cities because they had friends and families already settled in neighborhoods much like the one we see here.)

3. I. The New Metropolis The Shape of the Industrial City
1. Mass Transit and the Suburb –trolley car and invention of telephone changed transportation and communication-middle class moved to suburbs-poor stayed in urban
2. Skyscrapers-steel girders and elevators made it possible-(also Bessemer Process)
3. The Electric City-electricity allowed trains ,elevators, street cars, and subways-a modern city
The New Metropolis
The Shape of the Industrial City
Mass Transit and the Suburb – as cities grew larger, technology assisted residents and visitors with travel; electric trolley in Richmond, VA (1887); Chicago and New York City had elevated railroads; Boston had an underground line (1897); railroads contributed to the growth of the “suburb,” areas on the outskirts of city where wealthy lived: “commuters”; working class lived near cities’ centers where they worked; telephone (1876) connected suburban people to the cities.
Skyscrapers – steel, glass, elevators changed buildings in downtown areas; “skyscrapers” were expensive but a good use of small amounts of land; Home Insurance Building (1885) in Chicago was first.
The Electric City – gas lamps too dim for city streets; invention of the incandescent bulb in 1879 changed urban life as night time was now illuminated; urban life appeared safer and more appealing.

5. I. The New Metropolis Newcomers and Neighborhoods
1. Ethnic Neighborhoods-also divided by race and wealth-immigrants
2. African Americans-race riots- angry whites foreshadowing future violence
3. Tenements-high rise slum apartment unsanitary, overcrowded, poor ventilation, and lack of indoor plumbing led to disease-often used as sweatshops using immigrant labor
The New Metropolis
Newcomers and Neighborhoods
Ethnic Neighborhoods – immigrants generally lived among people of shared ethnicity: Irish in Boston, Swedes in Minneapolis, Italians in Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic cities; settled in neighborhoods where churches, shops, schools met their cultural needs.
African Americans – turn of the century 90% of black Americans lived in the South, but many were moving from rural to urban areas; in northern cities they faced discrimination and violence; “race riots” occurred in several northern cities (New York 1900; Evansville, IN, 1903; Springfield, IL, 1908).
Tenements – cheap housing, generally five to six stories, twenty or more families; disease rampant; in New York “Tenement House Law of 1901” required interior courts, indoor toilets, fire safety measures on new buildings. 5

9. I. The New Metropolis City Cultures
1. Urban Amusements-Newspapers-yellow journalism- Pulitzer vs Hearst
2. Ragtime Scott Joplin
3. Sex and the City-single men, gay clubs
4. Urban High Culture-libraries(Carnegie) and museums-donations
5. Investigative Journalism-Ida Tarbell exposed Standard Oil, Upton Sinclair –The Jungle(meatpacking) Steffans-corruption in city governments-they were muckrakers-forshadowed government reforms both municipal and national
The New Metropolis
City Cultures
Urban Amusements – “vaudeville” theater (1880s-1890s): patrons paid 25 cents to watch live entertainment; appealed to all classes; 5 cents for movie at the nickelodeons; amusement parks (ex: Coney Island, NY) where people rode the roller coasters, ate, and danced.
Ragtime – music by African American artists with a “ragged rhythm,” extremely popular among audiences used to Victorian hymns and parlor songs; Scott Joplin most famous performer; New York had more than 500 dance halls by 1910; the “blues” became popular in NYC, taken from African American folk music.
Sex and the City – amusement parks, theaters provided opportunities for “dating” that had not existed in previous generations; less parental supervision; working girls needed dates to “treat,” for some this meant exchanging sexual favors for the date (“charity girls”); gay subculture developed in urban areas with underground clubs; term “queer” was used by 1910.
Urban High Culture – art and natural history museums, libraries, symphonies grew out of wealthy patrons’ interests and donations; Andrew Carnegie spent more than $32.7 million developing 1,000 libraries nationwide.
Investigative Journalism – increased interest in reading about current events, human-interest stories, sports, fashion, high society; Sunday comics; “yellow journalism” was a derogatory term for mass-market newspaper; sensationalism grew as owners competed for sales (Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst); papers played an increasing role in investigating corruption in government; “muckrakers”: negative term for those newspaper reporters accused of drawing too much attention to negative stories.

10. 1. Riis photographed this boy and many others for his 1899 work How the Other Half Lives. What does this image of a working-boy tell us about the “other half” at the turn of the century?
(Answer: children worked out of necessity as indicated by Riis’s disclosure that this boy lied about his age; child works alongside adult men, his boss likely being the man in glasses looking at the camera.)
2. Who was Riis’s audience for this photograph? In your opinion, what did Riis hope to accomplish by photographing the poor at work and at home?
(Answer: Riis sought to show the middle and upper-classes the challenges of life in the poor neighborhoods so that they could use their influence to work for improvement.)

11. II. Governing the Great City
Urban Machines
1. Tammany Hall-NYC –graft-depended on votes of the poor-p607-precinct captains ,ward bosses, aldermen -Boss Tweed
2. Successes and Failures-provided services for poor, made city improvements, corrupt
The Limits of Machine Government
1. The Depression of the 1890s –Panic of 1893 ended the power of Tammany Hall
2. Programs- for the public good- gyms, playgrounds, efforts to reduce crime
Governing the Great City
Urban Machines
Tammany Hall – well-organized political party organizations referred to as “machines”; viewed by the middle class as corrupt; Tammany Hall: NYC, led by George Washington Plunkitt, who made deals for city contracts and services; the “honest graft”; middle-class Americans were critical of immigrants’ support for political machines, but immigrants needed the jobs and aid that they provided in exchange for their political support.
Successes and Failures – built and/or improved public parks, markets, paved streets, clean water, gaslight, sewerage removal; better organized municipal agencies; massive public projects such as aqueducts, bridges; limited in what the “boss” could do to stop widespread poverty; could help the individual, but not the bigger causes of the problems.
The Limits of Machine Government
The Depression of the 1890s – cities struggled to deal with the extreme growth in population; during 1890s unemployment reached 25% in some urban areas; homelessness and hunger increased; middle-class reformers encouraged private charity rather than public assistance; urban voters became radicalized by the poverty forcing politicians to make changes to their programs (ex: Cleveland’s mayoral race).
Programs – some American mayors began to model programs after European successes: public baths, gyms, swimming pools, playgrounds, free public concerts, lowering fares for street car travel, efforts to reduce crime and increase municipal ownership of gas and electricity.

12. III. Cities as Crucibles of Reform
Public Health
1. Disease-cholera , typhoid fever, yellow fever were common, high infant mortality rate among poor immigrants
2. Pollution-disease from trash, filth, contaminated milk and food led to backlash of reforms-public awareness campaigns, clean water initiatives, muckrakers-ex. The Jungle
Cities as Crucibles of Reform
Public Health
Disease – late 19th-century Europeans began to understand how to prevent disease, even if they could not yet cure; understood germs and bacteria; initiatives for clean water in urban areas of Massachusetts; were able to decrease the number of deaths from cholera, typhoid, yellow fever.
Pollution – more noticeable in urban areas than rural; children played in trash, consumed contaminated food, milk, water; reformers made efforts to teach hand washing to urban residents to stop tuberculosis; publication of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (1906) increased concerns about the meatpacking industry; creation of Food and Drug Administration (1906) to respond to concerns and ensure compliance with food and drug safety laws.

13. 1. According to this cartoonist, how do “cities invite the cholera”?
(Answer: sale of used/unclean clothing, stale vegetables, tainted meat and fish all being sold to children and their families.)
2. Why did this artist choose skeletons as peddlers on this city street?
(Answer: indicates his argument that death is being sold to women and children through the products available in the cities that local Boards of Health are not inspecting.)
3. In your opinion, what specific audience is the artist seeking to capture with this depiction of city life?
(Answer: progressive-minded middle and upper-class people who can do something to force/convince the Boards of Health to act; the appearance of barefoot children receiving tainted food from an image of death is meant to evoke an emotional and then hopefully political response.)

14. III. Cities as Crucibles of Reform
Campaigns Against Urban Prostitution
1. “White Slavery”-white slavery not common women turned to prostitution mostly due to low wages or domestic abuse
2. Vice Commissions-
Cities as Crucibles of Reform
Campaigns Against Urban Prostitution
“White Slavery” – allegations that white women were being kidnapped into sex industry were overstated, but led to reform efforts; investigations found that low wages, sexual and domestic abuse were likely causes of a woman working as a prostitute; efforts made to reduce the demand for prostitutes (punish men) were unpopular.
Vice Commissions – early 1900s effort to close down brothels and red-light districts; Mann Act (1910) prohibited the transport of a prostitute across state lines; commissions closed brothels but worsened conditions for women who continued to work in the sex industry. 14

15. III. Cities as Crucibles of Reform
The Movement for Social Settlements
1. Hull House-Jane Addams-Chicago- aid to poor immigrants –kindergarten playgrounds, bathhouses ,education, healthcare (women and children) Florence Kelly
2. Resources and Influence
City and National Politics
1. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire-tragedy led to NYC pass strongest labor laws in USA
2. Resulting Reforms-laws regarding fire safety, labor laws involving wages for women and children
Cities as Crucibles of Reform
The Movement for Social Settlements
Hull House – settlement houses viewed as one of the most successful reforms of the Progressive Era; most famous was in Chicago, started by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr (1889), modeled after London settlement “Toynbee Hall”; community center to aid immigrants in gaining the resources they needed to survive in the city; helped give the community a voice; offered a bathhouse, playground, kindergarten, daycare; in some cities settlements were linked to or worked with colleges/universities to offer education.
Resources and Influence – opened libraries, gymnasiums, employment assistance, savings banks, cooperative kitchens, assisted in investigations of problems in local communities (ex: helped establish juvenile court in Chicago); foundation of social work in urban areas.
City and National Politics
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire – March 25, 1911, New York City; fire spread quickly through textile factory where employers had locked doors to prevent theft (in violation of city fire laws); 146 deaths, average victim only 19 years old.
Resulting Reforms – New York State Factory Commission created 56 laws for fire hazards, machinery, industrial homework, wages for women and children; creation of an advanced labor code.

16. 1. Describe the events depicted in this illustration.
(Answer: women fall from above the street onto piles of bodies below; men appear to be helping women on the ground; a fireman stands with his eyes shielded, unable to consider the awfulness before him.)
2. What did artist John Sloan seek to teach Americans about the Triangle Fire from his depiction of the aftermath?
(Answer: Sloan’s drawing evokes the horror of the event – the bodies falling, the dead on the sidewalk, and the helplessness of those who sought to aid the women who tried to escape the fire but died nonetheless.)