CH 25: AMERICA MOVES TO THE CITY THE URBAN FRONTIER • From 1870-1900, the American population doubled • Population of the cities tripled • Cities grew up and out, Louis Sullivan was a famous architect who worked on skyscrapers, Bessemer steel process allowed this to occur • Cities grow from small and compact to huge metropolis where one needs electric trolleys and other mass transit • Electricity, indoor plumbing, and telephones were available in cities making them more enticing • Of course you also had crime, uncollected, sewage, unwashed bodies, and droppings • Department stores like Macy’s and Marshall Field’s provided not only jobs but also urban middle-class shoppers • Mail order catalogs, like Sears or Montgomery Ward, made purchasing easy for everyone • Worst were the slums, which were heavily crammed • Dumbbell Tenements were the worst. Dark, cramped, little sanitation or ventilation • To escape, the wealthy city dwellers go to the suburbs. THE NEW IMMIGRATION • Until 1880s, most immigrants had come from British Isles and Western Europe • Most were literate, accustomed to representative democracies, and the general culture • After 1880, this shifts to the Baltic and Slavic peoples of southeastern Europe who had very different life experiences • EX: Before 1880 immigrants from southeastern Europe accounted for only 19% of the total, but by 1900 were 60% • Many Europeans came to America because there was no more room in Europe • Industrialization had eliminated many jobs as well • The American Dream was also believed by Europeans, who hear of freedoms, jobs, and eating every day • Many in the States also promoted this idea to get additional immigration and thus cheap labor to come over • Many immigrants, if they stayed long or short term, were determined to retain much of their own cultures and customs • Their children were often the ones who rejected the ‘Old World’ cultures and embraced American life • The federal government did little to help immigrants assimilate into American society • Immigrants in larger cities were often controlled by political “bosses” who provided jobs and shelter in return for political support at the polls • Gradually Americans began to wake up and started to assist the new immigrants • Walter Rauschenbusch and Washington Gladden began preaching the “social gospel” • Belief that churches were to be the center of assistance and help on social issues • Jane Addams also believed deeply in helping the urban masses • Opened the Hull House in 1889 to teach children and adults literacy and skills needed to succeed; Won Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 • Others: Lillian Wald opened Henry Street Settlement in NYC in 1893 NARROWING THE WELCOME MAT • Nativism and antiforeignism of the 1840s and 1850s came back in the 1880s • The Germans and Western Europeans looked down upon the new Slavs and Baltics • Worried that, besides jobs, the mixing of blood would ruin the ‘better’ Anglo- Saxon races and create inferior offspring • “Native” Americans blamed immigrants for the degradation of the urban government (which they forgot they too had been blamed as well) • Trade unionists disliked the immigrants for their willingness to work for very low wages • Many also didn’t like them because they brought in new ideas of government like socialism and communism • The American Protective Association (APA) was formed to go against the new immigrants • Labor leaders were also quick to try to stop further immigration • 1882 Congress passes first restrictive law against immigration • Banned paupers, criminals, and convicts • Also banned Chinese immigration • 1885 another law banned importing contracted low wage workers • 1917 Congress passed a law placing literacy tests on immigrants • Immigrants coming into NYC were registered and inspected at Ellis Island DAY 1 WRITE THE QUESTION IN THE SPACE PROVIDED • A: Describe advantages and disadvantages of the urbanization in the late 1800s. • B: How was the ‘New’ immigration patterns of the 1880s different from previous? • C: What was the ‘social gospel’ and how did women like Addams attempt to help the urban masses? • D: Explain reasons why the ‘New’ immigrants of the 1880s were looked down upon by ‘Native’ Americans and labor. CHURCHES CONFRONT URBAN CHALLENGE • For quite some time, churches had not attempted to tackle the urban poor issue • A push for urban revival began to occur in the churches • Dwight Lyman Moody wanted to adapt the ‘old time’ religion to city life and created the Moody Bible Institute in 1889 Chicago • Roman Catholics and the Jewish faith also gained considerable numbers during this new immigration • By 1890, Americans could choose from nearly 150 religions • Salvation Army was started to help the poor and unfortunate • Mary Baker Eddy founded the Church of Christ, Scientist (Christian Science) • Cities also began to see YMCA’s and YWCA’s start up DARWIN / EDUCATION • 1859, Charles Darwin publishes the ‘On the Origin of Species’ which sets forth the theory of evolution • Fundamental Christians were hotly against this new theory • ‘Modernist’ Christians began to take a step back and completely agree of the Bible’s accuracy • A new trend to create more tax payer funded public schools and free text books started • By 1900, there were 6,000 high schools and Kindergartens were multiplying • Besides public schools, Catholic schools were also growing in number • Americans began to have faith in formal education as a solution to poverty. BOOKER T WASHINGTON AND EDUCATION FOR BLACK PEOPLE • The South in later 1800s was war-torn and super poor • It lagged far behind in education, especially for blacks • Booker T Washington, an ex slave, started a push for increased education • He headed a black normal and industrial school in Tuskegee, Alabama and taught students useful skills and trades • He avoided the issue of social equality, believing blacks helping themselves first before gaining more rights • One of his students was George Washington Carver, who later discovered hundreds of uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans • WEB Du Bois was the first African-American to get a PhD from Harvard • He demanded complete equality for blacks and action • In 1910, Du Bois founded the NAACP • The separation of Washington and Du Bois is evidence of the vastly different experiences between southern and northern blacks. HALLOWED HALLS OF IVY • Colleges and universities spring up after the Civil War • Included colleges for women, such as Vassar • Colleges for both genders grew, especially in the Midwest • Black colleges were also established (Howard University in Washington DC, Atlanta University, and Hampton Institute in Virginia) • Morrill Act of 1862 provided generous public land grants to states for support of education and was extended in the Hatch Act of 1887 • This provided federal funds for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in connection with the land grant colleges • Private donations also started to create colleges: • Cornell, Leland Stanford Junior, and University of Chicago which was started by JD Rockefeller • Medical schools also took off, especially following discoveries by Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister THE PRESS • Libraries opened across America, bringing literature into people’s homes • The invention of Linotype in 1885 allowed the press to keep pace • Sparked a new type of competition called ‘Yellow Journalism’ • Newspapers would report on wild fantastic stories that were often false or exaggerated • Two newspaper tycoons emerge: William Randolph Hearst (San Francisco Examiner) and Joseph Pulitzer (New York World) • The Associated Press attempted to off set some bad journalism, but yellow journalism flourished DAY 2 WRITE THE QUESTION IN THE SPACE PROVIDED • A: Describe how the churches began to help the urban masses. • B: Explain the divide between the views of fundamental Christians and Charles Darwin’s theories. • C: Compare and contrast the views of Booker T Washington and WEB Du Bois. • D: What is yellow journalism? REFORM AND POSTWAR WRITING • Magazines began to be published, such as Harper’s, the Atlantic Monthly, and Scribner’s Monthly. • Henry George wrote ‘Progress and Poverty’ which looked at social issues and it was George that came up with the idea of the graduated income tax • Graduated income tax is a progressive tax, the more money you make the higher your taxes • Edward Bellamy published ‘Looking Backward’ in 1888 • Critical of social injustices of the day and advocated for a nationalized big business that served the public good (socialism) • The mass marketing of ‘dime novels’ after the Civil War was huge • Usually depicted the wild West or other romantic adventure settings • Biggest author of dime novels was Harland Halsey who published 650 of them LITERARY LANDMARKS • Horatio Alger, wrote of virtue and honesty and hard work that was rewarded by success and wealth and honor • Walt Whitman continued to publish and update his ‘Leaves of Grass’ • Emily Dickinson was a famed hermit poet whose poems were published after her death • Mark Twain wrote many books (Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Gilded Age (coined the term), and the Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County) • Stephen Crane, Red Badge of Courage • Jack London, wrote about the wild and wilderness (Call of the Wild) FAMILIES AND WOMEN IN THE CITY • Urban life was stressful on the family • Not only did you have a ‘new morality’ in the cities- • Writings and articles that reflected new sexual freedoms, increased birth control, divorces,