VIII Urban Life A. New Technologies Change Cities

1. Industry within the city center

2. People start moving away from the center

a. laborers lived close to their jobs

i. semi-skilled and unskilled crowd together to share rent

ii. no indoor plumbing, privies in backyards

iii. garbage collected in streets

b. middle class moved away from dirty city centers

i. cleaner air away from industry

ii. wealthy neighborhoods clean streets

iii. larger houses built in new neighborhoods

a. had gas lighting

b. separate washing & cooking facilities

6 iv. some garbage removal

v. however, some disease because of proximity to city

c. rich and upper middle class

i. best living conditions furthest away from city center

ii. can afford railcars to work everyday

iii. indoor plumbing & large living space

iv. in some cases even had live in servants

3. City transportation

a. Horse drawn street cars in 1850s

b. cable cars in 1860s & 1870s

c. subways start in 1880s

4. Most cities grew larger than a 4 mile radius

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5. Cities were dirty

a. coal burning caused air pollution

b. indoor oil lamps & coal furnaces

c. disease prevalent with dirt

i. dysentery, small pox, tuberculosis

ii. yellow fever was known as American plague

iii. 1870s germ theory & connection to disease

i. Louis Pasteur (France)

ii. Joseph Lester (England),

iii. Robert Koch (Germany) all developed at same time

d. in late 1870s New York cleaned up sewage and garbage

e. 1880s New Yorkers concerned with clean drinking water

 

8C. Women Gain New Status

1. Women have more time

a. washing machine invented after war (expensive)

b. 1880s carpet sweeper invented

c. gas burning stoves & lights (no more soot)

d. 1870s prepared canned foods appear

i. Stopped weeks of canning for winter

2. States passed laws recognizing new freedom

a. women gain property rights within marriage

3. Fashions change

a. no more corsets

4. women pursue sports

a. bike riding

b. tennis & golf

95. women became more involved in the community

a. Women's Christian Temperance Union gains interest

b. women develop as leaders

c. 1890 General Federation Women's Clubs

d. 1880 Jane Addams - Hull House, Chicago

i. social settlement

ii. help poor women

a. find jobs, job training, etc.

b. care for children, teach parenting, etc.

6. Job Market

a. before war, men are all teachers

i. women took care of children

ii. traditionally take lower pay

a. school boards want to cut costs & hire women

10b. big business continued to pay women less

c. 1890s women worked as office workers, nurses, clerks

i. advancement remained difficult

ii. management remained in hands of men

7. Colleges

a. women's colleges opened in 1880s

b. others started to accept women for first time

c. by 1890 13% of college graduates were women

d. 1900 20% of college graduates were women

e. despite education some professions remained closed

i. medical schools refused to admit women

ii. few doctors allowed them to apprentice

a. yet 2,500 women managed to practice medicine in 1890 b. 2.8% of all doctors that year

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iii. law remained closed to women until the vote in 1920

D. Advances for Women corresponded to changes in Labor

1. New technology opens new jobs many need special training

2. Professions start to demand college education

a. no more training on the job

b. doctors and lawyers apprenticeships before 1850

i. 1893 American Medical Ass. American Barr Ass.

ii. both require college and grad school

iii. A way to regulate their professions & get rid of quacks

iv. Rot-gut Whiskey & Patent Medicine

3. Apprentice system dies out

a. Engineers build using new technology

b. Social Sciences divide from Philosophy (Ph.D. legacy)

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E. Education responded to new demands

1. more high schools opened

a. grew from 160 in 1870 to 6,000 in 1900

2. most states start compulsory education

a. colleges respond to the need

b. twice as many colleges started with increased enrolment

F. Social thought turns to rationalize the wealth of some

1. Social Darwinism developed in 1870 by Herbert Spencer

a. influenced by Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest

b. adapted this theory to the business environment

c. Andrew Carnegie was a prime example

i. a poor Scottish immigrant

ii. he died one of the richest men in America

13 2. Poverty and slums were inevitable

a. results from wealth concentrating in the hands of fittest

b. government support would upset the balance of nature

c. if rich help the poor they could infect the gene pool

3. Reached common culture through Horatio Alger Jr.

a. rages to riches stories

b. millions of books sold

c. myth of social mobility easily accepted

i. much economic prosperity & people wanted to believe

ii. middle class & college educated prospered

4. Effects U.S. Foreign Policy

a. If U.S. is fit it must expand overseas

b. Europeans are expanding foreign markets