1. City Living: Pros-Cons

2. Partly due to the number of immigrants to the United States
Many Americans also gave up their farms to move to cities because they were unhappy with farm life.
Population Increase

3. Building of skyscrapers – Up..not Out with the price of land
Wealthiest established fashionable districts in the heart of cities
Created a Growing Middle Class
Economic Advantages

4. Economic Disadvantages
In order to supplement income, sent children to work in factories
Rented space to boarders
Work in factories for long hours with little pay
Economic Disadvantages

5. Advantages of Living Conditions
Good for the wealthy, who owned large buildings and property
Middle class lived in neat rows of houses or new apartment buildings
The rich had fine houses with big lawns and plenty of trees
Advantages of Living Conditions

6. Disadvantages of Living Conditions
Difficult to afford decent housing because the low wages many were paid in their factory jobs
Three out of Four residents squeezed into tenements – dark, crowded multi-family apartments
Lived in run-down buildings with no plumbing or heat
Fire was also a constant danger because he buildings were made of wood and built so close together
“slums/ghettos”
Disadvantages of Living Conditions

8. Small wooden buildings were built quickly without regard to fire safety because of the number of immigrants that were travelling into the area.
One night, a fire started, although the cause was never determined.
The fire lasted 24 hours, and by the time it was finally put out, it had killed hundreds of people, nearly 100,000 people were left homeless, and 1/3 of the city had been destroyed.
w&scrlybrkr=a7cae083
Great Chicago Fire

9. Social Services Advantages
Installation of Cable Cars, then Electric Trolley Cars
Rise of Political Machines who would provide the basic necessities for the poor.
Middle class included doctors, lawyers, office workers, and skilled crafts people
Cities passed building codes, for decent plumbing and fire escapes
Zoning laws passed to put factories in different neighborhoods than apartment buildings.
Social Services Advantages

10. Social Service Disadvantages
Congestion was so bad that engineers were trying to get travel underground
Disease and Pollution posed bigger threats
Epidemics of typhoid fever and cholera
Improper sewage disposal contaminated city drinking water
Social Service Disadvantages

11. Social Life Advantages
The Middle Class citizens joined clubs, bowling leagues, singing societies, and charity groups
Activities gave them a sense of purpose and community.
The Salvation Army and the YMCA/YWCA
Jane Addams, Hull House, a settlement house for the poor in Chicago
Social Life Advantages

12. Social Life Disadvantages
Murder rate jumped sharply
Native-born Americans blamed immigrants for the increase in crime and violence, in reality this wasn’t true (Nativism all over again)
Alcohol contributed to the violence (Temperance movement)
Social Life Disadvantages

13. Need for more workers who were trained and educated
In 1870 – 6.5 million children
By 1900 – 17.3 million children
Americanization – Where immigrant children would learn about American culture “assimilate”
Schools taught English, American history, and citizenship
Education Advantages

14. Education Disadvantages
Parents worried that Americanization would make the children forget their own cultural traditions
Cities were way ahead of rural areas
African Americans did not have equal educational opportunities
started their own schools
Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1881
Education Disadvantages