1. The urbanization of America

2. Urbanization & industrialization SIMULTANEOUS
Cities provide laborers, market
Shift from rural to urban
By 1900s- 40% of US pop in cities, towns
By more Americans in urban areas than rural
Who?
Immigrants from outside & inside US
From farms to cities- jobs
African Americans
: 1 million southern blacks into northern/western cities

4. City change Streetcars & mass transit
Transportation improvement  growth
Horse-drawn  electric, elevated RRs, subways, steel cable bridges
Brooklyn Bridge, 1883
People live outside of city center
Escape pollution, poverty, crime
CON?
Segregation of workers by income, race, ethnicity
Working poor in older areas
Skyscrapers
From out to up
Otis elevator
1885- William Le Baron Jenny- 10-story Home Insurance Co. Building (Chicago)

8. Ethnic neighborhoods Middle-upper out, working poor into cities
Landlords divide apartments/housing into small, windowless rooms
 slums, tenement housing
4k+/city block
Overcrowded, filthy, disease-ridden
Cholera, typhoid, TB
1879- NYC law for each bedroom to have a window
 dumbbell tenements
Ethnic neighborhoods = continuation of culture
“ghettos”
Social clubs, churches, language, culture, newspapers, schools

13. Residential suburbs Opposite of Europe Rich in city, poor in outside
Movement OUT influenced by
Available low cost
Inexpensive transportation
Low-cost construction
Ethnic/racial prejudice
American fondness for “green,” privacy, detached/individual housing
Frederick Law Olmstead
Central Park, Biltmore, suburban communities
Curved roads, open spaces, “lawns”

14. City improvements By 1890s, “City Beautiful” movement begins
Tree-lined blvds, public parks, public cultural attractions
Private companies operate services that develop cities
Streetcars, utilities
Increase in disease, filth, crime, waste, water pollution  attempt to reform city government
Municipal water purification, sewer systems, waste disposal, street lights, police depts., zoning laws to regulate development

18. Immigrants & political machines
Consolidation in business mirrored in urban politics
Political parties w/in cities under control of organized groups of politicians
Ex: Tammany Hall, Boss Tweed
Orders down, reward supporters with gov. jobs
Organize to coordinate needs of businesses, immigrants, underprivileged
In return? VOTE
The good: modern services into cities, parks, services
The bad: bribery, intimidation, graft, corruption, fraud
65% of NYC public building fund into Tweed’s pockets

21. The awakening of reform in urban america

22. Urban problems + poverty  renewed social-consciousness of middle class
Books of Social Criticism
Henry George, 1879, Progress and Poverty
Critical inequality in wealth via industrialization
Propose solution to poverty- all taxes replaced with single tax on land
Edward Bellamy, 1888, Looking Backward,
Vision of a future w/o poverty, greed, crime
 shift in public opinion
Away from pure laissez-faire  greater gov. regulation

23. Settlement houses
Started by young, well-educated men & women (middle class)
Create foundation for job of “social worker”
Volunteers, political activists
Child-labor laws, housing reform, women’s rights
Frances Perkins, Harry Hopkins (1930s- FDR/ND)
Settle in immigrant neighborhoods so could learn problems of immigrants
Live/work in settlement houses that help relieve effects of poverty
Provide social services for neighborhood
Taught English, early childhood education, industrial skills, theaters, musical schools
EX: Hull House, Jane Addams (Chicago, 1889)

25. Social gospel
1880s-1890s: Protestant clergy advocate social justice for poor
Must apply Xn principles to social problems & progressive reform
Walter Rauschenbusch (Baptist minister from NY)
Work in Hell’s Kitchen
Encourage middle-class Protestants to solve urban problems

26. Women’s movement 1848- Seneca Falls = launch of women’s suffrage
By Stanton & Anthony found Nat’l Am. Woman Suffrage Assoc.
WY = first state to grant full suffrage to women (‘69)
1900- many states allow women to vote in local elections, own/control property after marriage
Temperance
Attract attention of women, urban reformers
Poverty, abuse, violence, crime
WCTU (1874)- Frances Willard
Antisaloon League (1893)- Carry A. Nation