1. Life in Cities and Consumerism
Samra Hrustemovic
Ashley Santos
Emily Stolting

2. Triangle Shirtwaist Company
Fire
Greenwich Village, NYC
Workers held in captivity
Owner charged

3. Farms vs Cities Explosive Economic Growth
Rising population
Increasing industrial production
Expansion of the consumer marketplace
Economy total output rose 85%
Farms and cities grew together

4. Rise in population Between 1900-1910
Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota
Great Cities
21 cities with populations exceeding 100,00
NY – largest population

5. Migration to cities Large amounts of people migrated to cities
Middle class
Benefited greatly
Growing incomes
Lower class people
Close to starving
Lived with crowding, inadequate water facilities, etc.

7. Immigrants Immigration – 40 million people Downtown New York
Low pay, harsh working conditions
“ethnic neighborhoods”

9. Improvements New Transportation systems Sanitation Systems made
Housing improvements

10. Muckrakers Journalists who exposed the underside of American life
Lewis Hines photography
Lincoln Steffen’s The Shame of the Cities
Ida Tarbell’s History of the Standard Oil Company

11. Consumer Freedom Consumer goods Leisure activities
Availability of consumer goods

12. Fordism Production innovations Fordism raised wages
Lower prices
Assembly lines
Fordism raised wages
Controversy on if this is a danger
$5 day
Linked mass production and mass consumption

13. Assembly line

14. Mass Consumption
American standard of Living

15. Scientific Management
Streamline production
Increased profit and wages
Loss of freedom for white and blue collar workers
Loss of worker tradition, increased production

16. Settlement houses
Houses in poor and working-class neighborhoods in urban areas
Served the poor
“Hull House”