15.3 Urban Life
A. The changing cities- small—big 1. The impact of technology 1.Steel/skyscrapers 2.Elevators- Elisha Otis 3.Mass transit- trolley cars, commuter trains, subways 4.Suburbs- middle class and wealthy 2.Upper class life- urban- “new money” 1.Iron, steel, mining, publishing 2.Conspicuous Consumption- spend $ openly 3.Philanthropy- charitable efforts to promote public welfare 3. Middle class life- 1.Old middle class- outside work- males 2.Big businesses- women, lower wages 3.Most women home? Why able to leave? Less house work, children at school, tech improvements, buy things, smaller families 4.Free time, social clubs and reading; jobs 4. Lower class- service, no job, factory 1.Tenement buildings- apartments; crowded, raw sewage, garbage, dirt streets, pollution, bred disease- Tuberculosis 2.African Americans
B. The Drive for Reform- settlement houses Ex) Jane Addams Hull House (Chicago) help poor, women Ex) Janie Porter Barrett- settlement house for African Americans- Locust Street Social Settlement VA The Gospel of Wealth- Carnegie The rich had an obligation: use $ for good! 1.Ladder system- universities (scholarships), libraries “If you build it, they will come”
C. Urban Culture- 1. Public education- grows with city -Mandatory days/year -Girls % -3 R’s - John Dewey “Laboratory School” - Segregation- African Americans, poor conditions 2. Popular journalism- more literate NY WorldVS.NY Journal Comic stripsheadlines Advice columnssensationalism Sports page Yellow journalism
3. Literature- fiction, romance, mystery, western Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn 4. Leisure time- sports 1.Basketball: James Naismith Football:1922- National Football League American Football League First Super bowl 1.Baseball: “America’s Pastime” -Alexander J. Cartwright 1845-rules st Pro-team- Cincinnati Red Stockings st World Series -* Babe Ruth ban on AA’s, lasted 60 years until Jackie Robinson 2.Croquet and Cycling 3.Children: “Greatest Show On Earth” (circus) Amusement parks- Coney Island Theatre Vaudeville/Nickelodeon