The Rise of the American City

AP THEME: In the late nineteenth century, American was increasingly dominated by large urban centers. Explosive urban was accompanied by often disturbing changes, including the new immigrant, crowded slums, and conflicts over cultural values. /

Chapter 19: American Society in the Industrial Age

Three great forces in the US between 1877-1900 Industrialization – Immigration – Urbanization
Progress / Poverty
Architecture changes – steel replaces old masonry as skyscraper dot urban landscape replacing church spires as the dominant feature of the urban skyline
Electric elevator; electric and gas lights, street cars, trolley, subways elevated rail lines
Modest fare could bring middle class shoppers and workers into central business districts
Middle class communities encircled the city (Concentric rings);
Leisure time – playing and watching sports, traveling circus
Middle class Women and children occupy a separate sphere of domesticity – a retreat from the hustle and bustle of the everyday world
Married later and had fewer children
Educational opportunities / FOCUS – Immigrants and African Americans
1890 - Population density on Manhattan 900 people per acre
1890 Chicago 3 of 5 babies die before 1
1879 - James E. Ware’s Dumbbell tenement housing for the poor – 25 x 100 holds 30 4 room apartments housing 4-16 families per floor with 2 shared bathrooms per floor and an air shaft (contributed to the spread of fire) for ventilation; Ethnic neighborhoods exploited by landlords
Overcrowded breading grounds for disease – cholera, typhoid and tuberculosis (leading cause of death in US unit 1909)
Cities struggled to keep up with water and sewage facilities and Factories belched pollutants into the air
Gangs and crime rates soared; suicide rates and alcoholism rose - Perceived as a social menace and disorders – a threat to middle class values
Unsafe atmosphere characterized Immigrant life: Overcrowding, pollution, illness, prostitution and “white slavery” (becoming more visible)
Crowded apartments; saloon= escape from misery
Settlement Houses offer alternatives
BOSSES and the MACHINE POLITICS
WHAT? / Political parties that controlled local and state government in late 1800s
Political machines started as social clubs and later developed into
power centers
WHY? / Cities were growing fast! % Of population in cities (more than 8,000 inhabitants)
1860 / 17% / 1900 / 33% / 1920 / 50%
City government disorganized with few reliable services (police, fire, welfare)
They coordinated the needs of business, immigrants, and the underprivileged in return for votes on election day
SERVICES – find jobs, apartments, baskets of food during hard times, funeral arrangements
CASE STUDY – THE TWEED RING
William M. "Boss" Tweed was an American politician and head of Tammany Hall the name given to the Democratic Party politcal machine that played a major role in NYC politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. He was convicted and eventually imprisoned for stealing millions of dollars from the city through graft (official gains something of value, not part of his official pay)
The total amount of money stolen was never known, but has been estimated from $25 million to $200 million. Over a period of two years and eight months, New York City's debts increased from $36 million in 1868 to more than $130 million by 1870, with little to show for the debt.
The famous Tweed Courthouse, which cost the city $13 million to construct, most of it going to line the pockets of Tweed and his gang. The city was also billed $3,000,000 for city printing and stationery over a two-year period
CRITIQUE
The role of Boss gave immigrants the opportunity to rise up an gain political power and influence because they were ordinary people who met the needs
Boss and political machine offered a direct contrast to the US Senate (the millionaires club) were the wealthy and well placed had power
Teddy Roosevelt who studied the system concluded that urban reformers would have to create social agencies to fill the role that the bosses played / YOUR NOTES:

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