The U.S.

Economy
City Life & Growth of the Modern City (1870s-1920s)
 CITY LIFE & GROWTH OF THE MODERN CITY

» Thedynamo of Amerian economic vitality now rested in its

Urban Centres

» Industrialization,
manufacture and growth in retail trades
and services led millions of people to throng towards Cities
seeking for job opportunities

» Immigration and In-Migration (largely from the

countryside as well as freed blacks from the South) were
the major contributions to urban growth. Migration
citywards matched migration to the WEST (occurring at the
same time). Flashy city lifestyle appealed to the rural
youths. Cf. characters in The City (play, 1920); The Great
Gatsby (novel, 1925)
» Gradually, the compact city of the early 19th century, where
different social groups lived close together and their
residences mingled among shops, factories and
warehouses, sprawled largely unplanned several miles
beyond the original settlement

» Improvements in the system of transport (canals, railroads,

cable cars, electric trolley cars) moved people faster and
farther into and out of the cities.
 CITY GROWTH : 1870s—1920s

1870 1920

Number of cities with more than 100,000 people: 15 68

Number of cities with more than 500,000 people: 2 12

Number of people living in cities: 10 million 54 million

New York, by 1898 1.5 million 3 million

During the 1920s, mechanization and commercial farming led 6 million

American bankrupt small farmers and tenants to abandon the countryside
and seek better opportunities in cities
 GROWTH OF SUBURBS

» Bythe 1920s, prosperity and automobile transportation

enabled burgeoning Upper- and Middle Class families to
move to the City Suburbs (bedroom communities) fleeing
congested metropolitan centres, crime, environmental
problems, and proximity to troublesome and grime ethnic
and working class neighbourhoods.

» Suburbs were resisted annexation by expanding cities,

especially in the Northeast and Midwest, where
suburbanites prevented central cities from access to the
resources and tax bases of wealthier suburban communities
» Citysuburbs become centres of decisive socio-economic &
political power

Suburban men and women used automobiles or public

transports to ride into the city centre for work, shopping, and
entertainment

» TheCity centre becomes a Work Zone, where tall buildings

loom over streets clogged with people

Cities and Suburbs fostered the mass culture that gave the
1920s its character
MIDDLE-CLASS SUBURBAN HOUSING (1911)
CULVER CITY, OUTSIDE LOS ANGELES (1920s)
ELECTRIC TROLLEY CAR
Early 20th Century Inner City Tenement (New York)