01:512:104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Urban Sprawl, Yellow Journalism, Joseph Pulitzer
13 May 2018
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Chapter 19 - The Vitality and Turmoil of Urban Life, 1877-
1920
I. Introduction
Cities gained great importance in the 1880s, and by 1900 urbanization
affected every section of the United States.
II. Industrial Growth and Transportation in the Modern City
A. Urban Industrial Development
Since the cities of the late nineteenth century provided everything that
factories needed, they became the main arenas for industrial growth.
B. Birth of the Modern City
In the late nineteenth century the compact city of the past gave way to urban
sprawl and to cities subdivided into distinct districts.
C. Mechanization of Mass Transportation
Commuter railroads, cable cars, and streetcars allowed for greater mobility in
urban America.
D. Beginnings of Urban Sprawl
Improved transportation led city dwellers to move into outlying neighborhoods,
creating urban sprawl.
III. Peopling the Cities: Migrants and Immigrants
A. How Cities Grew
Cities could grow by annexation, by natural increase, and by migration.
B. Migration from the Countryside
Many Americans migrated from rural to urban areas during the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries.
C. African American and Hispanic Migration to Cities
In the 1880s and 1890s, thousands of rural African Americans seeking better
economic situations moved to cities. In the West, many Hispanics also moved
from rural to urban areas.
D. Immigration from Other Lands
Most urban newcomers were immigrants from Europe.
E. The New Immigrants
A new wave of immigrants, from eastern and southern Europe, frightened
Americans because of the emigrant’s customs, different faiths, illiteracy, and
poverty.
F. Residential Mobility
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In addition to movement from rural to urban areas, large numbers of people
not only moved from city to city but within cities as well.
IV. Urban Neighborhoods
A. Immigrant Cultures
Immigrants’ cultures helped sustain them in their new home, and Old World
institutions also helped them adapt.
B. Ethnic and Racial Borderlands
Immigrants in large cities lived in multi-ethnic neighborhoods.
C. Ghettos
By the early twentieth century, institutionalized racism forced African
Americans to live in highly segregated ghettos.
D. Barrios
In southwestern and western cities Mexicans found themselves confined in
barrios.
E. Americanization
Immigrants adapted their old world cultures to the realities of life in America.
F. Accommodation of Religion
The influx of immigrants from 1870 to 1920 changed the United States from a
mostly Protestant nation into one of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. Many
Catholics and Jews supported liberalizing trends within their religions to
accommodate their faiths to their new American environment.
V. Living Conditions in the Inner City
A. Housing
Urban growth meant masses of people jammed into the inner cities, leading to
housing shortages and unsanitary living conditions.
B. Housing Reform
Reform campaigns led to some improvements in housing conditions.
C. Sanitation and Construction Technology
The establishment of water purification and sewage disposal systems helped
control the spread of disease. Steel-frame construction made possible the
building of skyscrapers.
D. Urban Poverty
The uncertainties of the business cycle meant that many families lived in
poverty. Private relief agencies often acted out of the belief that poverty was
caused by personal defects. However, some humanitarians began to advance
the more progressive belief that people’s environments caused poverty.
E. Crime and Violence
Many people feared urban crime. In all likelihood, cities did not have
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Document Summary
Chapter 19 - the vitality and turmoil of urban life, 1877- Cities gained great importance in the 1880s, and by 1900 urbanization affected every section of the united states. Industrial growth and transportation in the modern city: urban industrial development. Since the cities of the late nineteenth century provided everything that factories needed, they became the main arenas for industrial growth: birth of the modern city. In the late nineteenth century the compact city of the past gave way to urban sprawl and to cities subdivided into distinct districts: mechanization of mass transportation. Commuter railroads, cable cars, and streetcars allowed for greater mobility in urban america: beginnings of urban sprawl. Improved transportation led city dwellers to move into outlying neighborhoods, creating urban sprawl. Peopling the cities: migrants and immigrants: how cities grew. Cities could grow by annexation, by natural increase, and by migration: migration from the countryside.
