Chapter Eighteen

The Growth of Cities and American

Culture
1865-1900
A Nation of Immigrants
 Growth of Immigration
• What made Europeans want to come here?
– Poverty
– Unemployment
– Religious persecution
 Old Immigrants and New Immigrants
• Before the 1880’s
– Britain, Germany, Scandinavia
– Protestants
– Irish and German Catholics
• After the 1890’s
– Italian, Greek, Croat, Slovak, Pole, Russian
– Roman Catholic, Greek or Russian Orthodox,
Jewish
 Restricting Immigration
• Frederic Auguste Bartholdi
– Sculpted the Statue of Liberty
• Chinese Exclusion Act
– Banned newcomers from China
• Because…
– Unions were against immigrants because of their
tendency to do anything
– The American Protective Associate hated Roman
Catholics
– Social Darwinists were against English and German
Urbanization
 Changes in the Nature of Cities
• Streetcar Cities
– Trolleys, railroads, and subways dominated
• Skyscrapers
– William Le Baron Jenny built the ten-story home insurance
company building in Chicago
• Residential Suburbs
– Growth was caused by…
• Cheap land
• Cheap transport
• Cheap construction
• Racism
• Desire for Privacy
 Boss and Machine Politics
• Bosses controlled political machines
• Political machines controlled politics in cities
• Boss Tweed was a boss (Funny, that)
Awakening of Reform
 Reform
• Books of Social Criticism
– Henry George
• Progress and Poverty
– Edward Bellamy
• Looking Backwards
• Settlement Houses
– Efforts to fix poverty by volunteering
– Hull House in Chicago, started by Jane Addams
– Frances Perkins and Harry Hopkins were settlement
workers that went on to help in the New Deal
 More Reform
• Social Gospel
– Applying Christian principals to social problems
– Lead by Walter Rauschenbusch
• Religion and Society
– Catholics defended the Knights of Labor
– Protestants help evangelists adapt
– The salvation army helped the homeless
– Mary Baker Eddy
• Founded the Church of Christ, Scientist
 Even More Reform
• Families and Women in Urban Society
– Divorces increased
– Birthrate dropped
– Seneca Falls Conference
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
• Began the National American Women’s Suffrage Associate
– Wyoming was the first state to give women the vote
• Temperance and Morality
– Blamed alcohol for poverty
– Women’s Christian Temperance Union
– Lead by Frances E. Willard (Not a woman? :P)
Intellectual and Cultural Movements
 Changes in Education
• Public Schools
– Literacy rose
– Kindergarten became prevalent
– Tax supported high schools
– Colleges increased
• Because of the Morrill Act and universities founded by
BigWigs, and colleges for women
 Literature and the Arts
• Realism and Naturalism • Painting
– Mark Twain
• Huckleberry Fin – Thomas Eakins
– William Dean Howells • Everyday lives
• Rise of Silas Lapham, and A – James Whistler
Hazard of New Fortunes
– Stephen Crane • Arrangement in Grey and
• Maggie: A girl of the Black
Streets – Mary Cassat
• Red Badge of Courage
• Pastels
– Jack London
• The Call of the Wild – Ashcan School
– Theodore Dreiser • Painted everyday life
• Sister Carrie
 More New Things
• Architecture • Music
– Henry Hobson – Jazz became popular
Richardson
• Romanesque style
 Popular Culture
• Popular Press
– Mass Circulation increased
• Amusements
– More time for fun, due to less hours, better
transportation, more advertising, and loss of strict
religious restrictions
• Spectator Sports
– Baseball, football, basketball, boxing
– John L. Sullivan – Boxer
• Amateur Sports
– Croquet, biking, golf, tennis, polo, yachting7