A PEOPLE and A NATION SIXTH EDITION Norton Katzman Blight Chudacoff Paterson Tuttle Escott...

A PEOPLE and A NATIONSIXTH EDITION

Norton Katzman Blight Chudacoff Paterson Tuttle Escott

Chapter 19: The Vitality and Turmoil of Urban Life, 1877–1920

19-2

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Ch.19: Urban Life, 1877–1920

• New urban environment creates challenges• Unlike farm life, in cash-based urban economy,

must buy everything (food)• Cities are source of hope, conflict, adjustment,

especially for “New Immigrants”• 51% of Americans are urban by 1920, and the

city is central to American life; source of diversity and pluralism (class, race, ethnicity)

19-3


I. Urban Industrial Development

• Cities are centers of industrial growth; provide capital, workers, and consumers for factories

• Cities have variety of factories, but often specialize in one product (clothing, NY)

• US shifts from debtor agricultural nation to industrial, financial, and exporting power

• Shape of city changes; earlier cities were compact, but sprawl starts late 1800s

19-4


II. Mechanization of Mass Transportation

• Mass transit allows middle-class and rich to live away from congestion of urban core, but commute for work, shopping, etc.

• Cable cars, 1870s; electric streetcars, 1890s• Largest cities build elevated trains and/or

subways (both expensive) to bypass traffic• With sprawl, cities subdivide; growing

separation between home and work, rich and poor

19-5


III. Beginnings of Urban Sprawl

• Electric interurban railways link nearby cities and accelerate growth of suburbs

• Fares too expensive for factory workers• Growth unplanned and guided by profit

motive; little attention to parks, traffic, etc.• Besides people, some businesses (shops) move

to suburbs; urban core = work zone• Urban growth both centrifugal and centripetal

19-6


IV. Peopling the Cities: How Cities Grew

• 1870: 10 million Americans in cities; 1920: 54 million (550% increase)

• Some growth results from annexing nearby areas; but biggest factor is migration from countryside and immigration from abroad

• Rural populace declines; low crop prices and high debts push farmers off land; move to cities for jobs and to escape isolation

19-7


IV. Peopling the Cities: How Cities Grew (cont.)

• 1000s of rural African Americans migrate to cities in search of new opportunities

• Discrimination limits them to service jobs; more openings for black women than men

• Many Hispanics in West migrate to cities; take over unskilled jobs (construction)

• Even more newcomers were immigrants; some from Canada, Asia, or Latin America

19-8


V. Immigration from Others Lands

• Most immigrants come from Europe; 26 million between 1870–1920 and most go to cities

• Part of worldwide population movement caused by population pressure, land redistribution, and industrialization

• Religious persecution is also a factor (Jews)• New communications and transportation

facilitate global movement of peoples

19-9


VI. The New Immigrants

• Earlier, most immigrants were from northern and western Europe; by 1900 shifts to southern and eastern Europe

• Bring greater diversity in language, religion, ethnicity, and customs to US

• Foreign-born and native-born of foreign parents form majority in many US cities

• Many native-born whites of native parents (old immigrants) resent “new” immigrants

19-10


VII. Residential Mobility

• Newcomers cope with challenges by relying on family (pool resources, help with jobs)

• Also constant movement within city or to other cities in search of better opportunities

• Some find success; others keep moving• Easy movement = safety value; relieve some

tensions and frustrations of city life• Peopling of cities is a dynamic process

19-11


VIII. Immigrant Cultures

• Initially live in ethnic enclaves and follow traditional culture, but crowding and movement force contact with other cultures

• Although immigrants try to preserve their culture, in large cities, neighborhoods are multiethnic “urban borderlands”

• White New Immigrants suffer prejudice, but less than blacks, Asians, and Hispanics

19-12


IX. Ghettos, Barrios

• White immigrants leave enclaves over time; not so for people of color; racism is key factor

• Segregated black ghettos develop; few jobs; lots of animosity from surrounding whites

• Churches central to African American life• Asians also segregated and suffer violence• Mexicans lose land and isolated into barrios

located far from urban core

19-13


X. Americanization; Accommodation of Religion

• Immigrants try to preserve language, but children learn English via schools and work

• Music reflects cultural interaction• Religiously, US becomes more diverse with

Catholics, Jews, and Orthodox Christians• Some Catholics and Jews accommodate US

culture; others resist (Conservative v. Reform Judaism)

19-14


XI. Living Conditions in the Inner City

• Massive influx of people creates immense problems of overcrowding, disease, poverty

• Some problems solved, but many continue• Biggest problem is lack of adequate housing• High rents force 2–3 families to occupy one-

family apartments in tenements, esp. NYC• Small rooms lack windows, plumbing, and safe

heat; result is disease, vermin, and filth

19-15


XII. Housing Reform; New Household Technology

• NY leads in regulating light, ventilation, and safety of new buildings; does not effect old ones

• Riis and Veiler advocate model tenements, but even reformers reject public housing

• New systems of heat, light, and plumbing benefit upper and middle classes first; slowly others connected to gas, electricity, and water

• Wealthy create new private spaces in home

19-16


XIII. Sanitation, Construction; Urban Poverty

• In response to germ theory, cities build better water purification and sewer systems

• Street paving, steel-frame construction, elevators, and steam-heat improve urban life

• Still, many working families live in poverty• Seasonal nature of work; boom/bust cycles• Americans debate whether to help poor

19-17


XIV. Urban Poverty, cont.

• Traditional belief is that poor are lazy and immoral; aid to poor creates dependence

• Some reformers begin to argue new urban environment contributes to poverty

• Advocate government action to address poverty with safety and health regulations

• Origins of later Progressive movement, but in late 1800s, most wealthy reject reform

19-18


XV. Crime and Violence

• Homicides and other crimes (theft) increase (more reporting may explain growth)

• Nativists blame immigrants, but native-born are just as likely to turn to crime as immigrants

• Violence against newcomers is frequent; race riots against blacks in cities across US

• Atlanta, 1906; East St. Louis, IL, 1917

19-19


XVI. Promises of Mobility

• Little mobility for women and people of color• White male occupational mobility exists with

more white-collar jobs and small businesses• Few rag-to-riches successes (most rich start

with affluence), but moderate advance occurs for some white men, esp. native-born

• 17–20% of manual workers rise to non-manual work within 10 years

19-20


XVI. Promises of Mobility (cont.)

• Some downward mobility also occurs, especially for owners of small businesses

• Acquiring property is difficult because of high interest loans with short repayment periods

• 36% of urban Americans own homes (1900), higher than most Western nations

• Gap between rich and poor widens, but possibility of mobility serves as safety valve

19-21


XVII. Managing the City

• Governments slowly address new problems• Most develop professional police by 1900• Police forces exhibit poor training, corruption

as well as ethnic and racial prejudice• Different groups want different kinds of law

enforcement on customer-oriented crimes• Political machines arise from confusion of

politics (seek office for economic rewards)

19-22


XVIII. The Machine; The Boss

• Use bribery and graft, but also help urban newcomers with their many problems

• Boss: professional politician who brokers diverse interest groups; often an immigrant

• NY’s Tammany Hall mixes personal gain with public accomplishments; in return for votes, bosses help with jobs, food, law, etc.

• Machines: organizations with popular base

19-23


XVIII. The Machine; The Boss (cont.)

• Profit from control of city contracts and jobs• Also profit from illegal actions (gambling)• Construct vital public works, but bribes and

kickbacks inflate costs to taxpayers• Like business leaders, bosses use politics for

self-interest and reflect racial and ethnic bias

19-24


XIX. Urban Reform

• Upset by corruption and taxes, middle/upper classes oppose bosses but with little success

• Advocate city managers/city commissions to create efficient government by experts

• Reformers do not realize that urbanities are loyal to bosses because bosses help with problems

• A few reform mayors use government to address poverty (Pingree of Detroit)

19-25


XX. Social Reform

• Young, middle class (and often female) reformers try to help urban newcomers with problems (housing) and Americanize them

• Advocate government action; later form vanguard of Progressive reform movement

• Addams and Hull House—settlement houses• Faced with bias, African American female

reformers (Hunter) help fellow blacks

19-26


XXI. Architects; Engineers

• City Beautiful architects try to make cities attractive and efficient with parks, wider streets

• Displace poor in process; reflects naiveté and insensitivity of many middle class reformers

• Engineers improve waste disposal, street cleaning, lighting, and construction, but raise question of how to pay for new services

• All reformers seek to improve city life

19-27


XXII. Family Life

• Family remains primary social unit and helps members deal with urban-industrial problems

• Most households consist of a nuclear family, but family size shrinks with declining birth rate; boarding is a common practice

• Number of unmarried people increases• Stages of life (youth, parenthood, old age)

become more distinct

19-28


XXIII. The New Leisure and Mass Culture

• Leisure time expands and becomes a business• Sports: baseball/football for men; women’s

basketball; croquet/cycling for both sexes• Circuses, popular drama, musical comedy,

vaudeville provide escape, reinforce biases• Movies, newspapers, and magazines become

profitable consumer goods; help create a mass culture, but US remains pluralistic

19-29


Summary: Discuss Legacy & How Do Historians Know

• How is ethnic food a legacy of the emerging pluralistic US of the late 1800s?

• Food is unique because conflict-free interaction between groups; diet is a chance for accommodation and preserving group identity

• HDHK box, p. 532*: how do photographs reflect efforts of urban reformers to shape public opinion?

• How did Riis use the camera as reform tool? *Norton, A People and a Nation, Sixth

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