Chapter 25
America Moves to the City, 1865–1900
Chapter
Themes
Theme: In the late
nineteenth century, American society was increasingly dominated by large urban
centers. Explosive urban growth was accompanied by often disturbing changes,
including the New Immigration, crowded slums, new religious outlooks, and
conflicts over culture and values. While many Americans were disturbed by the
new urban problems, cities also offered opportunities to women and expanded
cultural horizons.
Theme: African
Americans suffered the most as the south lagged behind other regions of the
country with regard to educational improvements and opportunities. Two schools
of thought emerged as to the best way to handle this problem. Booker T.
Washington advocated that blacks should gain knowledge of useful trades. With
this would come self-respect and economic security – Washington
avoided the issue of social equality.
W.E.B. Du Bois demanded complete equality for
blacks, both social as well as economic.
chapter summary
The United States
moved from the country to the city in the post–Civil War decades. Mushrooming
urban development was exciting but also created severe social problems,
including overcrowding and slums.
After the 1880s the cities were flooded with the New
Immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. With their
strange customs and non-Protestant religions, the newcomers sometimes met with nativist hostility and discrimination.
Religion had to adjust to social and cultural changes. Roman
Catholicism and Judaism gained strength, while conflicts over evolution and
biblical interpretation divided Protestant churches.
American education expanded rapidly, especially at the
secondary and graduate levels. Blacks and immigrants tried, with limited
success, to use education as a path to upward mobility.
Significant conflicts over moral values, especially relating
to sexuality and the role of women, began to appear. The new urban environment
provided expanded opportunities for women but also created difficulties for the
family. Families grew more isolated from society, the divorce rate rose, and
average family size shrank.
American literature and art reflected a new realism, while
popular amusement became a big business.
Note Cards: Analyze the
following terms; include historical context, chronology, drawing conclusions,
and cause/effect where appropriate. Each note card you complete is worth one
extra credit point; pick the terms you need the most help with to understand.
Chapter 25 Study Guide
Thought Questions: While you are reading
the chapter for the first time, write down a couple questions or observations
that come to mind for class discussion. These
thoughts could be about ideas you do not understand or ideas you find curious
or interesting.
1.
2.
The Urban Frontier
3. What factors led to the growth of
cities in the second half of the 1800's?
The New Immigration
4. How were the
new immigrants different from the old immigrants?
Southern Europe Uprooted
5. Why did the new immigrants come to America in such large numbers?
Makers of America: The Italians
6. How did Italian immigrants live their lives in America?
Reactions to the New Immigration
7. How did political bosses help immigrants?
Narrowing the Welcome Mat
8. In 1886, what was ironic about the
words inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty?
Churches Confront the Urban Challenge
9. What role did religion play in helping the urban poor?
Darwin Disrupts the Churches
10. What effect did the theory of evolution
have on Christian churches?
The Lust for Learning
11. What advances took place in education in
the years following the Civil War?
Booker T. Washington and Education for Black People
12. Explain the
differences in belief between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois.
The Hallowed Halls of Ivy
13. What factors allowed the number of
college students to dramatically increase?
The March of the Mind
14. Describe some of the intellectual
achievements of the late 1800’s.
The Appeal of the Press
15. How did the ability to produce newspapers
inexpensively change their content?
Apostles of Reform
16. How did writers in the 1870's and 1880's
try to address the problems of their time?
Postwar Writing
17. Did the trends in writing after the
Civil War make it a good period for literature? Explain.
Literary Landmarks
18. What did many writers in the late 1800's have in common?
The New Morality
19. What evidence demonstrated a battle
raging over sexual morality?
Families and Women in the City
20. What changes were occurring in the women's rights movement?
Prohibition of Alcohol and Social Progress
21. What social causes were women (and many
men) involved in the late 1800's?
Artistic Triumphs
22. Why is this section titled "artistic triumphs?"
The Business of Amusement
23. What forms of recreation became popular from 1870 to 1900?
MAKERS OF AMERICA:
THE EARLY PRAGMATISTS
Questions for Class Discussion
24. Assess
the validity of the following quote, “pragmatism offers . . . a philosophy of
life built on experimentation, ethical commitment, and open-ended democratic
debate.”
15. Why is pragmatism
considered the quintessential American philosophy? Do you agree with that assessment, why or why
not?
26. Historically
speaking what was so appealing about pragmatism and what was so repugnant about
pragmatism? Does this philosophical
world view have any thing to offer 21st century Americans?
Analysis Questions
“I found myself…with high expectations and a certain belief that
whatever perplexities and discouragement concerning the life of the poor were
in store for me, I should at least know something at firsthand and have the
solace of daily activity.…I had at last finished with the ever-lasting
‘preparation for life,’ however ill-prepared I might be.” Jane Addams (1860–1935)
“Water runs down hill, and the highest hills are the great cities. If
we can stir them, we can stir the whole nation.…There is misery in the great
city, but what is the cause of it? Why, the sufferers have become lost from the
Shepherd’s care.” Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) (1876)
“The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of
social equality is the extremist folly.…The opportunity to earn a dollar in a
factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a
dollar in an opera house.” Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) (1895)
“In the school [the child] learns something of social values, in the
church something, in the street something…but in the home he learns…every day
and hour, that life, this deep, new, thrilling mystery of life consists mainly
of eating and sleeping, of the making and wearing of clothes.” Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) (The Home, 1903)
1. Did
the development of American cities justify Jefferson’s claim that “when we get
piled up in great cities we will become as corrupt as Europe”?
2. Compare
the “heroic” story of immigration, as illustrated in the Statue of Liberty,
with the historical reality. What explains the ambivalence toward the New
Immigrants reflected in Lazarus’s poem? Emma Lazarus’s Statue of Liberty poem
says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled
masses yearning to breathe free,” but also called the immigrants “wretched
refuse.”
3. Did
urban life cause a decline in American religion or just an adjustment to new
forms?
4. Why
did urban life alter the condition of women and bring changes like birth
control and rising divorce rates to the family?
5. Consider the impact and
meaning of new “popular amusements” like the circus, baseball, vaudeville, and
so on.
HISTORIC NOTES
·
Industrialization sparks urbanization, and
cities become magnets for immigration.
Those who can afford to leave behind the hustle and bustle of urban life
move to the budding suburbs.
·
The late nineteenth century sees a surge of
immigration, now from eastern and southern Europe. Most encounter living and working conditions
not appreciably better than what they had left.
·
As it was for earlier immigrants, those who
immigrate in the post-Civil War era are generally not welcomed by those whose
families established roots in America
in an earlier period. Asians, Eastern
and Southern Europeans, and Jews often face hostility from those who consider
themselves culturally superior and who maintain that American culture is being
weakened by these new immigrants.
·
Disappointed with the premature end of
Reconstruction and the continuing struggle of blacks to achieve social
acceptance and political and economic equality, black leaders suggest various
ways to defeat racism. Some black
leaders such as Booker T. Washington advocates a gradualist approach, while
W.E.B. Bu Bois is committed to a more aggressive, confrontational approach.
·
Incensed by the expanding gap between wealth and
poverty, corruption in government, and a host of other social, economic, and
political concerns, reformers put pen to paper and educate millions of
Americans about these problems. Books
and journals such as The Nation
provide readers an alternative perspective to more widely known mainstream
political ideas
·
The foundations of the twentieth-century women’s
rights movement are laid in the nineteenth century by advocates such as
Victoria Woodhull and Jane Adams. The struggle over women’s suffrage is one
facet of the strain between those who celebrated the new, modern American
woman.
·
The prohibition movement attracted those who
claimed that alcohol consumption was immoral and unchristian. Some contemporaneous critics of the movement
refuted this perspective as a veiled attempt to impose a set of social and
cultural values on society.
·
In 1909, WEB DuBois
helped found the black civil rights organization that is still in existence,
the NAACP.
Advanced
Placement United States History Topic Outline
15. Industrial America in the
Late Nineteenth Century
A. Corporate consolidation of industry
B. Effects of technological
development on the worker and workplace
C. Labor and unions
D. National politics and influence of
corporate power
E. Migration and immigration: the
changing face of the nation
F. Proponents and opponents of the new
order, e.g., Social Darwinism and Social Gospel
16. Urban Society
in the Late Nineteenth Century
A. Urbanization and the lure of the
city
B. City problems and machine politics
C. Intellectual and cultural movements
and popular entertainment
17. Populism and
Progressivism
A. Agrarian discontent and political
issues of the late nineteenth century
B. Origins of Progressive reform:
municipal, state, and national
C. Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson as
Progressive presidents
D. Women's roles: family, workplace,
education, politics, and reform
E. Black America: urban
migration and civil rights initiatives