America’s History Eighth Edition America: A Concise History Sixth Edition CHAPTER 19 “Civilization’s Inferno”: The Rise and Reform of Industrial Cities 1880–1917 Copyright © 2014 by Bedford/St. Martin’s James A. Henretta Eric Hinderaker Rebecca Edwards Robert O. Self

I. The New Metropolis A. The Shape of the Industrial City 1. Mass Transit - electric trolley system was designed in Richmond, VA (1887); Chicago and New York City had elevated railroads; Boston had an underground line (1897). “commuters”; telephone (1876) 2. Skyscrapers - Steel, glass, and elevators changed buildings. good use of small amounts of land; the ten-story Home Insurance Building (1885) in Chicago was the first skyscraper. 3. The Electric City

I. The New Metropolis A. The Shape of the Industrial City 3. The Electric City -Invention of the incandescent bulb in 1879 changed urban life, as night time was now illuminated; urban life appeared safer. More appealing.

I. The New Metropolis B. Newcomers and Neighborhoods 1. Ethnic neighborhoods -Immigrants lived among people of same ethnicity: Irish in Boston, Swedes in Minneapolis, and Italians in northeastern and Mid-Atlantic cities; 2. African Americans -By 1900, 90 percent of black Americans lived in the South, but many were moving north where they faced discrimination and violence; race riots occurred in several northern cities. 3. Tenements

I. The New Metropolis B. Newcomers and Neighborhoods 1. Ethnic neighborhoods 2. African Americans 3. Tenements -Five- or six-story buildings that provided cheap housing for twenty or more families in cramped, airless apartments; New York’s Tenement House Law of 1901 required interior courts, indoor toilets, and fire safety measures for new buildings.

I. The New Metropolis C. City Cultures 1. Urban Amusements -Vaudeville theater, arose in the 1880s and 1890s: twenty-five cents to watch live entertainment; a nickel for movies at the early movie theaters, or nickelodeons; amusement parks (ex: Coney Island, NY), 2. Ragtime and City Blues -Ragtime music by African American artists with a “ragged rhythm” became extremely popular; Scott Joplin was most famous performer; New York dance halls; the “blues” became popular in New York City, taken from African American folk music. 3. Sex and the City

I. The New Metropolis C. City Cultures 1. Urban Amusements 2. Ragtime and City Blues 3. Sex and the City -New entertainment provided opportunities for dating that had not existed; less parental supervision; working-class girls relied on dates for the “treat”; gay subculture developed in urban areas with underground clubs; term queer was used by 1910

I. The New Metropolis C. City Cultures (cont.) 4. High Culture -Art and natural history museums, libraries, and symphonies grew out of wealthy patrons’ interests and donations; Andrew Carnegie established over a thousand libraries nationwide 5. Urban Journalism -current events popular; Sunday color comics featuring the “Yellow Kid” gave such publications the name yellow journalism, sensationalism grew for sales (Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst); papers investigated corruption in government; “muckrakers”: term for newspaper exposing negative stories

II. Governing the Great City A. Urban Machines 1. Tammany Hall “political machines”; viewed by the middle class as corrupt; New York’s infamous Tammany led by George Washington Plunkitt, made deals for city contracts and services; favored what he called the “honest graft” —the profits that came to insiders who knew where and when to buy land; middle- class critical of immigrants’ support for political machines, but immigrants needed their help in exchange for their political support.

II. Governing the Great City A. Urban Machines 2. Successes and failures -Machine-style governments built and/or improved public parks and markets, paved streets, brought clean water and gaslight, and removed garbage; led to better organized municipal agencies; achieved massive public projects such as aqueducts, sewage systems, bridges, and spacious parks; however, machines were limited in what the “boss” could do to stop widespread poverty; could help the individual, but not the bigger causes of the problems.

II. Governing the Great City B. The Limits of Machine Government 1. The Depression of the 1890s -Cities struggled with extreme growth in population; 1890s, unemployment high in urban areas; homelessness and hunger increased; middle-class reformers encouraged private charity rather than public assistance; urban voters became radicalized by the poverty, forcing politicians to make changes to their programs 2. Programs

II. Governing the Great City B. The Limits of Machine Government 1. The Depression of the 1890s 2. Programs -Some American mayors began to model programs after European successes: public baths, gyms, swimming pools, playgrounds, efforts to reduce crime and increase municipal ownership of gas and electricity.

III. Crucibles of Progressive Reform A. Fighting Dirt and Vice 1. Cleaning Up Urban Environments -Late 19 th century Europeans began to understood germs and bacteria; began major initiative for clean water in urban areas of Massachusetts; were able to decrease the number of deaths from some diseases; hand-washing in urban residents to fight tuberculosis catches on; movement to clean up pollution; “City Beautiful” movement advocated more and better urban park spaces, gardens, skating rinks, playgrounds, etc. 2. Closing Red Light Districts

III. Crucibles of Progressive Reform A. Fighting Dirt and Vice 1. Cleaning Up Urban Environments 2. Closing Red Light Districts -Concerns about white slavery (allegations that white women were being kidnapped into sex industry) were overstated; found a complex reality: women entered prostitution as a result of many factors, (low-wage jobs, economic desperation, abandonment, sexual and domestic abuse, etc; efforts made to reduce the demand for prostitutes were unpopular; Mann Act (1910) prohibited transport of prostitutes across state lines; Crusade closed brothels, worsened conditions for sex industry women in the long term.

III. Crucibles of Progressive Reform B. The Movement for Social Settlements 1. Hull House -Settlement houses; famous settlement was Chicago, started by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr (1889), provided a community center to aid immigrants in gaining the resources they needed; gave the community a voice; offered amenities and services; in some cities, settlements were linked to or worked with colleges/universities to offer education. 2. Resources and influence

III. Crucibles of Progressive Reform B. The Movement for Social Settlements 1. Hull House 2. Resources and influence -Opened libraries, gymnasiums, savings banks, and cooperative kitchens; provided assistance in employment and investigations of problems in local communities.

III. Crucibles of Progressive Reform C. Cities and National Politics 1. Triangle Shirtwaist fire -March 25, 1911, NYC fire spread quickly through the Triangle Shirtwaist textile factory; workers discovered employers locked the emergency doors to prevent theft. Many were trapped in flames; 2. Resulting reforms -NY created fifty-six laws dealing with work related issues; the labor code that resulted was the most advanced in the United States.