Lecture 2 Society and poltics in the post-Civil War years

CITY LIFE The rise of the new elite (underside v. elite) Elite neighborhoods (Nob Hill in San Francisco) The rise of urban middle class (educated professionals, white collar workers, shopkeepers) Modernization of home life (central heating, refrigeration, electric lighting)

CITY LIFE Commercially prepared foods (Campbell Soup, Quaker Oats, Canada Dry ginger ale) Changing structure of the day (no cock crow, noon-day meal disappears or loses significance, women have more time for self-development) Victorian mores (discipline, prudishness, sobriety, industriousness, self-control) Chicago Vice Commission

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Temperance movement –Women’s Christian Temperance Movement Nativist considerations (anti-German, anti-Irish) Suffrage movement Susan B. Anthony (National American Women’s Suffrage Association-1890)

LEADING IDEOLOGIES Social Darwinism-natural selection, survival of the fittest, Herbert Spencer- no governmental interference is necessary in the workings of society Pragmatism: William James, John Dewey-cash value of an idea, philosophy of business expansion and enterprise

SOCIAL CRITICS Conspicuous consumption Thorsten Veblen: Theory of the Leisure Class-wealthy do not provide value Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives-description of tenement living

POLITICS IN THE CITY Corruption (party caucuses choose Senators) Political Machine: providing social services in return for votes Boss System- Boston’s Tammanny Hall, Daley in Chicago Strong mayor type of local government Early form of social services

SOCIAL ILLS Economic injustice (low pay, over 10 hour workday) Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (1913) -Struggle against vices (prostitution, alcoholism, obscenity) Child labor Chicago Vice Commission

PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT A reform movement Aim: to cure the ill effects of the American Industrial Revolution ( ) Gentlemen reformers (mugwumps) Muckrakers –documentary journalists, writers revealing social problems-Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906)

DIRECT DEMOCRACY Seventeenth Amendment-direct election of U.S, Senators Sixteenth Amendment-income tax Initiative (petition, enough signatures, issue on ballot) Referendum (binding, non-binding) Recall (removal of elected officials, but only on local level)

REFORMING URBAN POLITICS Weak mayor system, elimination of the boss system (strong mayor) Professional city managers (not connected to political parties) Weakening the role of the party Moving against the trusts, Monopoly-one firm controlling the market 1890: Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1906: Food and Drug Act

THEODORE ROOSEVELT Born in 1858 Early traumas, loss of wife, adventures in the West Domestic progressive, Improves race relations, denounces lynching Invites Booker T. Washington to White House

THE SQUARE DEAL Fight against monopolies Trust buster 1904: breaks up the Northern Securities Trust Interferes in labor relations, settles the anthracit coal strike of 1902 Starts the conservation movement Emphasizes progressive conservatism