Progressive Era: THE AGE OF THE CITY

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Progressive EraTHE AGE OF THE CITY

• America begins life as an agrarian society but
  rapidly begins to urbanize.

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Topics

• Urbanization
• Population Growth
• Immigration and Migrations
• The Ethnic City
• Urban Landscape
• 1) Public Space
• 2) Housing
• Problems of Urban Life
• Political Machines
• Mass Consumption
• Leisure
• Culture in the City

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The Lure of the City

• We cannot all live in cities. Yet nearly all
  seemed determined to do so.
• Horace Greely
• More and better- paying jobs
• Immigrants
• Better transportation
• Declining farm regions of east
• West, cities of midwest and east

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Population Growth
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Total Immigration
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Sources of Immigration from Europe 1860 - 1900
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African-American Migration
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The Ethnic CityMilwaukee, WI 1850 - 1890
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Immigrants in the City

• Benefits of ethnic neighborhoods
• Those who arrived with a skill did better than
  those who did not
• Strength of ethnic ties vs. assimilation
• African Americans, Asians and Mexicans suffered
  the most discrimination
• Changing Gender Patterns

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The Urban Landscape A study in contrasts
Jacob Riis photo
Washington Square North, 1890
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The Urban LandscapePublic Space

• Reformers, planners and architects call for more
  ordered vision of the city
• City Planning parks, libraries, museums

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Need for Urban Planning becomes evident as well
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The Urban Landscape 1850s Central Park
Olmstead and Vaux
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Housing the Well -to -do

• Due to cheap labor, easy access to tools more
  people are able to buy homes
• Beacon Hill, Nob Hill, Society Hill, Fifth Ave

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Housing Workers and the Poor Tenements
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How the Other Half Lives(1890)Jacob Riis
documents slum life
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The Urban LandscapeUrban Transportation
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The Urban Landscape Population changes with
transportation
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The Urban Landscape Cities grow upward as well
as outward

• Steel girder construction
• Louis Sullivan
• Frank Lloyd Wright will later apply techniques to
  shorter buildings

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Problems of Urban Life

• Fires
• Disease typhoid, cholera due to poor sanitation
• Air pollution
• Poverty
• High crime rates

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Great Chicago Fire 1871 supposedly started by
Mrs. OLearys Cow

• Whole midwest was very dry
• Streets were made of wood which helped fire
  spread
• 4 miles long area burned

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The Aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire
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The Legend
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Disease

• Sanitation standards were low
• Raw sewage in the streets contaminated the water
• Sewer systems not complete until into the 20th
  century.

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Urban Poverty

• Private and public agencies offered limited
  relief, thinking it would cause dependence
• Salvation Army
• Idea of self-improvement limited attention to
  sources of poverty

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Fear of the City/Crime and Violence

• High crime rates
• Alienating
• Anonymous
• Limited connection with work
• Sister Carrie

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The Political Machine and the Boss

• Became a source of assistance for new immigrants,
  those who needed jobs and those in trouble with
  the law- often in return for votes.
• Would give supporters government jobs

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Political Machines
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The Rise of Mass Consumption

• Coincides with the rise of the middle class
  demand for products
• Chain stores, mail order products
• Woolworth
• The A P
• Goods no longer being made at home, but instead
  purchased in the consumer economy

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Leisure Thanks to the 8 hour workday
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Leisure Sports Footballoriginated in
universities
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Baseball The American National Game

• Baseball clubs
• 1903 First modern World Series. Red Sox beat the
  Pittsburg Pirates
• Working class game

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Mass communication

• Newspapers become more important
• American journalism becomes a profession