1. Urban America

2. Immigration
Welcome to the Melting Pot

3. Where are they coming from?
Most immigrants in the U.S. from Eastern & Southern Europe
14 million during the years 1860 and 1900

4. Reasons for Immigration
Jobs available with few immigrant restrictions
Avoid forced military service
Avoid religious persecution

6. The Atlantic Voyage
Booking in Steerage – the cheapest accommodations “Coach”
14 day journey
Disembarked at Ellis Island – processing center beginning in 1892

7. Settlement of New Immigrants
Landed in the nation’s cities: New York, Chicago, Detroit
Cities separated into ethnic groups
“Little Italy” “Lower East Side”
Re-created their homelands

8. Little Italy

9. Lower East Side

10. One in Three immigrants would move back to Europe
Not all stay was permanent
Make money, return home
Who liked immigrants?
Who disliked immigrants?

11. Asian Immigration
The discovery of gold in California sparked Chinese immigration
Worked as laborers, servants, and in skilled trades
Many helped to build the Transcontinental Railroad
Creation of Angel Island for Asian Immigrants

12. Nativism An extreme dislike for immigrants by native-born people
American Protective Association
Working Man’s Party of California
Chinese Exclusion Act – barred Chinese immigration for 10 years and prevented those already in the country from becoming citizens

15. Urbanization

16. Political Machine
Informal political group designed to gain and keep power
Cities were growing MUCH faster than their governments
New city dwellers needed: jobs, housing, food, heat, and protection
Party Bosses would provide these necessities to gain votes

17. George Plunkitt
“I just get [housing] for them, buy clothes for them if their clothes were burned up, and fix them up till they get things runnin’ again. It’s philanthropy, but it’s politics too – mighty good politics. Who can tell how many votes one of these fires bring me? The poor are the most grateful people in the world, and, let me tell you, they have more friends in their neighborhoods than the rich have in theirs.”
In Search of America

18. Party bosses controlled the cities finances, got rich from fraud or graft
A politician might find out where a new park was to be built, so they would buy the land near the site.
The politician would then sell the land to the city for a profit.

19. Tammany Hall

20. The Gilded Age

21. The Gilded Age
Around
The world seemed to sparkle, but underneath there was mass corruption
H.H. Holmes/Devil in the White City

24. Individualism Horatio Alger – Minister, “Rags to Riches” author
Rise in society and go as far as your talents and commitment would take you

25. Social Darwinism Evolution and Natural Selection
Human society developed through these processes
Only the fittest people would survive, that is why society gets better
Why trusts (Standard Oil) survived

26. Carnegie and his Gospel of Wealth
Article written by Carnegie and the responsibility of philanthropy.
Carnegie would take his fortune that he built through the steel business and would give his profits to cultural, educational, and scientific institutions
For the improvement of mankind.
Philanthropy – the wealthiest should use their fortunes to further social progress
Captain of Industry

27. Popular Culture The Saloon Coney Island in New York
Professional Baseball Teams
Professional Football Teams
Vaudeville
Ragtime

28. The Rebirth of Reform

29. The Settlement House Movement
Belief that it was ones Christian duty to improve living conditions for the poor.
Settlement Houses in poor neighborhoods, middle-class residents lived and helped poor residents, mostly immigrants
Jane Addams – Hull House Chicago
Medical care, recreation programs, English classes, hot lunches for factory workers.
Helped shape the social work profession