Problems at the Turn of the Century

 muckraker: a journalist who wrote about social, environmental, and political problems Americans faced in the early 1900s Teddy Roosevelt gave them the name because “"raked the mud of society.“

 Rise of industry = rise of urbanization: the growth of cities- Drawn in by jobs and amusements  U.S. becoming an urban, industrial society with an increasingly diverse population  Mechanization = more production  More production= new methods of selling goods Montgomery Ward and other catalogs Department Stores

 People lived in slum tenements New York's Lower East Side, for example, housed 450,000 people in =than 300,000 people per square mile.  Poor living conditions because of poor infrastructure: the facilities or equipment required for an organization or community to function, including roads, sewage and power systems, and transportation  Lack of fire protection and sanitation

 Factory work boring, strenuous, and dangerous  Unsafe products No Gov. regulations Meat- the Jungle Medicine- Coca Cola

 Reduction of Natural Resources Ranching, farming, logging extractive industries: businesses that take mineral resources from the earth  Coal, oil, etc.  Pollution Factories, animal waste, household sewage

 political machines: an organization consisting of full-time politicians whose main goal was to retain political power and the money and influence that went with it Tammany Hall: a political machine in New York City- Boss William Tweed patronage: the practice of politicians giving jobs to friends and supporters Rigged elections, money from entertainment, helped people for votes, Corruption  Pendelton Act-an 1883 federal law that limited patronage by creating a civil service commission to administer exams for certain nonmilitary government jobs

 During the late 1800s, the gap between rich and poor grew wider  African Americans Not many gains since civil war Found ways to not allow them to vote Many moved North  Women Worked outside the home Attended college  Families Public education expanded but many can’t go b/c need children to work temperance movement: a reform movement calling for moderation in drinking alcohol- Seen as way to improve family life