Chapter 19

America Moves to Town

The Pull of the City: Cities grew fantastically from 1880 to 1900, all out of proportion to rest of population. Urban growth = very unevenly distributed, some areas = unaffected until 20c. Most = in N. Atlantic states. Drain on countryside = most evid ent in midWest and N.Atlantic. But pull of city = still increasing. Thousands of farms = abandoned, houses left ot decay, villages deserted, despite great increases in total population. 70s and 90s = worst decades of agricultural depression, and glamour o f city = at its height. After 70s, cities = increasingly arranged around center slum, with rings of rising affluence around, brought on by street railways, job locations, housing prices, racial prejudice, and class distinction. Smaller cities specialized in one industry.

City Lights and Cesspools: All-important electric lights permitted factory night shifts, night entertainment. Electric streetcars allowed for mass transportation. The 'burbs. But technology lagged behind in street paving, water supply, and sewage. Onl y in 1878 did Washington start the trend with asphalt paving. Through 90s, sewage and water = a disaster. Water = often polluted with industrial wastes, sewage = dependent on cesspools and privies.

The Immigrant and the City: Most immigrants came to cities. Most were formrely country people in Europe. Greater influx of immigrants, and these = more reluctant to leave the Eastern cities. Thus, eastern cities = clogged, and already bad crowding = m ade worse. "New immigration" of S and E Europe, usu R.Catholic or Jewish, Slavic, and very foreign. Tended to congregate together.

Slums and Palaces: Slums: cities grew without controls or plan, and guided mainly by greed. Slum buildings = one example of this. Turned into little better than vertical cesspools. Crime and prostitution, gangs. And right nearby, ostentatious palaces that showed off owners' wealth wihtout shame.

The Awakening of a Social Conscience

City Government: Reputation and Record: Certainly, great opportunities for corruption, but stuff got done: SF's Golden Gate Park, NY's Central Park, Boston's Public Library, etc. Politicians often sold municipal contracts to the highest bidder, but ci ty = still no less magnificent. City bosses as "robin hoods" of the masses. Found their strongest support among the immigrant masses who = unaccustomed to the ballot system, democracy, and bewildered by their new life. Bosses helped them, and secured thei r votes. Thus, functionally bosses were a great "social resource"?

Humanitarians and Reformers: Middle class = indignant at the misery of the city. But first, it had to realize that poverty = not a crime, not the poor's fault. This they did with the settlement houses, in which many social workers got to know the poor first-hand. Politically, battle for reform began with Nat. Civil Service Reform League, 1881 (goo-goos):practical reforms; National Municipal League, 1894, presented model city charters Rights of Women: Women = still bound to cult of true womanhood, legally inferior. Victorian family structure = based on subjection of female into childbearing and rearing role. But technology at home helped her tasks, as did cheap immigrant servants. More women's colleges. General Federation of Women's Clubs joined many women's clubs, had huge membership. National American Woman Suffrage Association = somehow (?) formed in 1890. New feminists began to oversimplify the problem, unify solutions to all socia l problems in attainment of suffrage. No success until WWI.

The Church: Protestant tradition upheld status quo, social darwinism, lassez-faire, impeded relief. Revivalists brought many into church. But many still drifted away. Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science. The Salvation Army. The YMCA. The Catholic Ch urch, with the new immigration. Social Gospel of reforming Protestant clergy.

The Spread of Learning

Public Schools and Mass Media: rapid growth after 1870, esp. in cities. Free education = thought cure-all, end-all of American democracy, best way to Americanize foreigners. Private schools still held on. Public schools depended greatly on local suppo rt. Thus, south's schools = miserable, since had 2x as many kinds/parent, and only 1/2 the income. But still, schools increased. Increase in art museums, public libraries, journalism, periodicals.

The Higher Learning: This age = called the Gilded Age for its crassness and materialism. But still, large advances in higher education. Colleges tended to = very dogmatic, pedagoguic. But Harvard (YEAH!) revised its curriculum: elective courses, more science courses with labs, and discussion groups. Great increase in grad school attendance. Increase of German influence in thought. Merrill Act of 1862 gave land grants toward founding of colleges, many of which sprang up.

The Arts and Letters

Artists and their work: an age of extremes, excesses. But some good stuff. Beginning of skyscrapers. Brooklyn Bridge. Central Park. Homer, Eakins, Ryder.

Beginnings of Realism: Dickinson, Twain, Howells, James.