1. Urban America Focus Questions:
Identify the differences between immigration before the Civil War and immigration after the Civil War.
What were the “push” and “pull” factors of immigration?
Identify the different immigrant depots and the immigrants that came through them.
Who were Nativists and what influence did they have on immigration laws in the United States?
Why were Americans anti-immigrant?
Describe urban politics in the United States.
Analyze urban living and the conditions of the tenements.
Locate some of the major urban areas in the United States.
The purpose of the focus questions is to help students find larger themes and structures to bring the historical evidence, events, and examples together for a connected thematic purpose.
As we go through each portion of this lecture, you may want to keep in mind how the information relates to this larger thematic question. Here are some suggestions: write the focus question in the left or right margin on your notes and as we go through, either mark areas of your notes for you to come back to later and think about the connection OR as you review your notes later (to fill in anything else you remember from the lecture or your thoughts during the lecture or additional information from the readings), write small phrases from the lecture and readings that connect that information to each focus question AND/OR are examples that work together to answer the focus question.

2. Immigration
●Immigration before and after 1880’s ●Reasons for immigration to the United States *Push factors *Pull factors

3. ●Immigrant life *Immigrant Depots *Ethnic neighborhoods *1900 Numbers
12 million immigrants total
Estimated that 40% of the population’s ancestry came through here
1, 000,000 immigrants in 1907

4. New Immigrant Groups
●Italians
●Jews
●Chinese
●Poles
●Czechs

5. Anti-Immigrant Sentiment
●Nativists *Objections to new immigrants *American Protective Association
●Efforts at immigration restriction
The Chinese Exclusion Act

6. Anti immigrant/Catholic cartoon showing “alligator Popes” coming out of the water
American flag at public school being flown upside down (anti-German fear of German influence on education system)
Immigrants being hung in background

7. Urban politics *Political machines *Services

8. Political Bosses
*Tammany Hall
*Boss Tweed
*Graft

9. Urbanization
Reasons for urbanization ●Vertical growth ●Horizontal growth

10. City life
*Lure of the city
*Tenements
*Filth and disease
*Crime

11. Major Cities of the Period
●New York ●Chicago ●Philadelphia ●St. Louis/Milwaukee ●Boston ●Minneapolis

12. ●Spectator sports *Urban location *Boxing *Baseball *Football
*Basketball