HIS 132 Test #2

Republicans pushed their agenda at the state level by Sunday closing laws, prohibition, and the mandatory use of English in public schools

How did Republicans push their agenda at the state level with their Control of Congress?

Like the native-born, most immigrant families were nuclear in structure—two parents and their children. Though variations occurred from group to group, men's and women's roles were also similar to those in native families: Men were wage earners; women were housekeepers and mothers. However, immigrants tended to marry at a later age than natives and to have more children, which worried nativists opposed to immigration. Immigrants shaped the city as much as it shaped them. Most of them tried to retain their traditional culture for themselves and their children while adapting to life in their new country. To do this, they spoke their native language, practiced their religion, read their own newspapers, and established parochial or other schools. They observed traditional holidays and formed myriad social organizations to maintain ties within the group.

How were most immigrant families different from natives?

The Democratic Party won big in the elections of 1890 & 1892. They controlled the White House & Congress when the Panic of 1893 hit and Cleveland was President.

In what years did the Democrats win big elections?

Skyscrapers built with steel beams reached new heights; became emblems of progress

What became emblems of progress from 1870 and 1900?

The city became the symbol of a new America between 1870 and 1900.

What became the symbol of a new America between 1870 and 1900?

The "Ocala Demands" were government warehouses for storage until crop prices rose, low tariffs, a Federal graduated income tax, shifted more of tax burden to wealthy, and the regulation of railroads

What were the "Ocala Demands?"

The three largest cities in 1900 were New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

What were the three largest cities in 1900?

Jim Crow laws expanded during the 1920s and 1930s. Mississippi segregated white and black patients in hospitals and mandated that nurses could tend only the sick of their own race. City ordinances required Jim Crow taxis in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1929; Birmingham, Alabama, in 1930; and Atlanta, Georgia, in 1940. In 1930, a Birmingham ordinance forbade blacks and whites from playing each other at dominoes or checkers.

When did the Jim Crow laws expand?

In January 1896, Spain sent a new commander, General Valeriano Weyler Nicolau, to Cuba. Relentless and brutal, Weyler gave the rebels ten days to lay down their arms. He then put into effect a "reconcentration" policy designed to move the native population into camps and destroy the rebellion's popular base. Herded into fortified areas, Cubans died by the thousands, victims of unsanitary conditions, overcrowding, and disease.

Who did Spain send to Cuba in 1896?

Before 1890, the Populist movement had been attracting unhappy southern & western farmers.

Who did the Populist movement attract before 1890?

Farmers in the Populist movement were unhappy because of the roller coaster fluctuations in supply & demand, rising railroad transportation rates, and high interest mortgages. Some of these complaints were exaggerated. Economic conditions always varied from region to region; farm to farm. Still, general doom, gloom, & resentment of city "folk" was common. Farming parents grew tired of watching their children leave in search of a "better" life in the city

Why were farmers in the Populist movement unhappy?

Between 1870 and 1900, the city—like the factory—became a symbol of a new America. Drawn from farms, small towns, and foreign lands, newcomers swelled the population of older cities and created new ones almost overnight. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, only one-sixth of the American people lived in cities of 8,000 people or more. By 1900, one-third did; by 1920, one-half. Growth was explosive. Thousands of years of history had produced only a handful of cities with more than 500,000 in population. In 1900, the United States had six such cities, including three—New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia—with populations greater than 1 million.

Between 1870 and 1900, what became the symbol of America?

By the 1890s, Cuba and the nearby island of Puerto Rico represented nearly all that remained of Spain's once-vast empire in the New World. Cuban insurgents had repeatedly rebelled against Spanish rule, including in a decade-long rebellion from 1868 to 1878 (the Ten Years' War) that failed to achieve independence. The depression of 1893 damaged the Cuban economy, and the Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894 prostrated it. The tariff raised duties on sugar, Cuba's lifeblood, 40 percent. With the island's sugar market in ruins, discontent with Spanish rule heightened. In February 1895, revolt again broke out. Recognizing the importance of the nearby United States, Cuban insurgents established a junta in New York City to raise money, buy weapons, and wage a propaganda war to sway American opinion. Conditions in Cuba were grim.

By the 1890s, what did Spain still control?

Educators saw the school as the primary means to train people for life and work in an industrializing society. Hence teachers focused on basic skills—reading and mathematics; and on values—obedience and attentiveness to the clock. Most schools had a highly structured curriculum, built around discipline and routine. In 1892, Joseph Rice, a pediatrician, toured 1,200 classrooms in 36 cities. In a typical classroom, he reported, the atmosphere was "damp and chilly," the teacher strict. "The unkindly spirit of the teacher is strikingly apparent; the pupils, being completely subjugated to her will, are silent and motionless." One teacher asked her pupils, "How can you learn anything with your knees and toes out of order?" School began early; boys attended all day, but girls often stayed home after lunch, since they were thought to need less learning. Many children dropped out of school, and not just to earn money. Helen Todd, a factory inspector in Chicago, found young girls working in a hot, stuffy attic. When she asked why they were not in school, Tillie Isakowsky, who was 14, said, "School! School is de fiercest t'ing youse kin come up against. Factories ain't no cinch, but schools is worst." Todd asked 500 children whether they would go to school or work in a factory if their families did not need the money—412 preferred the factory.

Describe school during the early 1900s.

Edward Bellamy also dreamed of a cooperative society that eradicated poverty, greed, and crime. A lawyer from western Massachusetts, Bellamy published Looking Backward, 2000-1887 in 1887 and became a national reform figure overnight. The novel's protagonist, Julian West, falls asleep in 1887 and awakes in 2000 to find himself in a socialist utopia: The government owns the means of production, and citizens share the material rewards. Cooperation, not competition, is the watchword. The world of Looking Backward had limits; it was regimented, paternalistic, and filled with the gadgets and material concerns of Bellamy's own day. But it enthralled readers. The book sold 10,000 copies a week, and its followers formed "Nationalist Clubs" to work for its objectives. By 1890, there were such clubs in 27 states, calling for the nationalization of public utilities and a wider distribution of wealth. Despite these ideas, some Protestant sects stressed individual salvation and a better life in the next world, not in this one. Poverty was evidence of sinfulness; the poor had only themselves to blame. "God has intended the great to be great and the little to be little," said Henry Ward Beecher, the country's best-known pastor. Wealth and destitution, suburbs and slums—all formed part of God's plan. Challenging those traditional doctrines, churches in the 1880s began establishing missions in city slums. Living among the poor and homeless, urban missionaries grew impatient with religious doctrines that endorsed the status quo.

Did Edward Bellamy feel the same as Clarence Darrow about crime?

Although Addams tried to offer programs for blacks, most white reformers did not, and after 1900, a number of black reformers opened their own settlements. Like the whites, they offered employment information, medical care, and recreational facilities, along with concerts, lectures, and other educational events. White or black, the settlement workers made important contributions to urban life.

Did a lot of white reformers offer programs to help the blacks?

Every major city had dozens of foreign-language newspapers. The first newspaper in the Lithuanian language appeared in the United States, not in Lithuania. Eagerly read, the papers not only carried news of the homeland but also reported on local ethnic leaders, told readers how to vote and become citizens, and gave practical tips on adjusting to life in the United States.

Did cities have foreign language newspapers?

Howells smelled more than poverty. In the 1870s and 1880s, cities stank. One problem was horse manure—hundreds of tons of it a day in every city. Another was the outdoor toilet or privy, "a single one of which," said a leading authority on public health, "may render life in a whole neighborhood almost unendurable in the summer." Baltimore smelled "like a billion polecats," recalled H. L. Mencken, who grew up there. Said one New York City resident, "The stench is something terrible." Another wrote that "the stink is enough to knock you down." In 1880, the Chicago Times said that a "solid stink" pervaded the city. "No other word expresses it so well as stink. A stench means something finite. Stink reaches the infinite and becomes sublime in the magnitude of odiousness."

Did cities smell nice in the 1870s and 1880s?

Du Bois was not alone in promoting careers in the professions. Throughout higher education there was increased emphasis on professional training, particularly in medicine, dentistry, and law. Enrollments swelled, even as standards of admission tightened. The number of medical schools in the country rose from 75 in 1870 to 160 in 1900, and the number of medical students—including more women—almost tripled. Nursing schools grew from only 15 in 1880 to 432 in 1900. Doctors, lawyers, and others became part of a growing middle class that shaped the concerns of the Progressive Era of the early twentieth century. Although less than 5 percent of the college-age population attended college during 1877-1890, the new trends had great impact. A generation of men and women encountered new ideas that changed their views of themselves and society. Courses never before offered—such as Philosophy II at Harvard, "The Ethics of Social Reform," which students called "drainage, drunkenness, and divorce"—heightened interest in social problems and the need for reform. Some students burned with a desire to cure society's ills. "My life began ... at Johns Hopkins University," Frederic C. Howe, an influential reformer, recalled. "I came alive, I felt a sense of responsibility to the world, I wanted to change things."

Did others support Du Bois strategy?

As gas and electric lights brightened the night, and streetcars crisscrossed city streets, leisure habits changed. Delighted with the new technology, people took advantage of an increasing variety of things to do. They stayed home less often. New York City's first electric sign—"Manhattan Beach Swept by Ocean Breezes"—appeared in 1881. At night people filled the streets on their way to the theater, vaudeville shows, and dance halls or just out for a stroll.

Did people stay in their homes as much in the 1870s?

Most visible in areas like voting, Jim Crow laws soon penetrated nearly every aspect of southern life. In 1915, a South Carolina code banned textile factories from allowing laborers of different races to work together in the same room or to use the same entrances, exits, toilets, and drinking water. That year, Oklahoma required telephone companies to maintain separate phone booths for whites and blacks. North Carolina and Florida ordered separate textbooks for black and white children. Florida even required that the books be segregated while they were in storage. A New Orleans ordinance placed black and white prostitutes in separate districts of the city. There were Jim Crow Bibles for African American witnesses in Atlanta courts and Jim Crow elevators in Atlanta buildings.

Did the Jim Crow laws have a large impact on the US?

African-American leaders debated issues regarding the future of college education Booker T. Washington - some racism must be expected & endured; concentrate on vocational education W.E.B. Du Bois - insisted that African-Americans receive quality integrated education

How did African Americans feel about college education?

Southern school laws often implied that the schools would be "separate but equal," and they were often separate but rarely equal. Black schools were usually dilapidated, and black teachers were paid considerably less than white teachers. In 1890, only 35 percent of black children attended school in the South; 55 percent of white children did. That year nearly two-thirds of the country's black population was illiterate. Educational techniques changed after the 1870s. Educators paid more attention to early elementary education, a trend that placed young children in school and helped the growing number of mothers who worked outside the home. The kindergarten movement, started in St. Louis in 1873, spread across the country. In kindergartens, four- to six-year-olds learned by playing, not by keeping their knees and toes in order. For older children, social reformers advocated "practical" courses in manual training and homemaking.

How did black schools compare to white schools?

In 1877, children were to be seen and not heard. They spoke only when spoken to, listened rather than chattered—or at least that was the rule. Older boys and girls were often chaperoned, although they could always find moments alone. They played post office and spin the bottle; they puffed cigarettes behind the barn. Journalist William Allen White recalled his boyhood high jinks. He and his friends smeared their naked bodies with mud and leaped out in full view of passing trains. Counterbalancing such youthful exuberance was pride in virtue and self-control. "Thank heaven I am absolutely pure," Theodore Roosevelt, the future president, wrote in 1880 after proposing to Alice Lee. "I can tell Alice everything I have ever done."

How did children act in 1877?

As colleges expanded, their function changed, and their curriculum broadened. No longer did they exist primarily to train young men for the ministry. They moved away from the classical curriculum of rhetoric, mathematics, Latin, and Greek toward "reality and practicality," as President David Starr Jordan of Stanford University said. MIT, founded in 1861, focused on science and engineering.

How did college curriculum change in the late 1800s?

Educational techniques changed after the 1870s. Educators paid more attention to early elementary education, a trend that placed young children in school and helped the growing number of mothers who worked outside the home. The kindergarten movement, started in St. Louis in 1873, spread across the country. In kindergartens, four- to six-year-olds learned by playing, not by keeping their knees and toes in order. For older children, social reformers advocated "practical" courses in manual training and homemaking.

How did education techniques change after the 1870s?

Industrialization and urbanization were changing family relationships. On the farm, parents and children worked more or less together, and the family was a producing unit. In factories and offices, family members rarely worked together. In working-class families, mothers, fathers, and children separated at dawn and returned, exhausted, at dark. Late-nineteenth-century working-class families, like that of the young Polish girl that Harriet Vittum saw, often lived in complex household units—taking in relatives and boarders to pay the rent. As many as one-third of all households contained people who were not members of the immediate family. Although the daily routine separated its members, working-class families tended to retain strong family ties, cemented by the need to survive in the industrial economy.

How did industrialization and urbanization change families?

Lynchings spread. Between 1889 and 1899, an average of 187 blacks were lynched every year for alleged offenses against white supremacy. Many blacks (and whites) convicted of petty crimes were leased out to private contractors whose brutality rivaled that of the most sadistic slaveholders. The convict-lease system enabled entrepreneurs, such as mine owners and lumber company owners to rent prisoners from the state and treat them as they saw fit. Unlike slaveowners, they suffered no loss when a forced laborer died from overwork.

How did lychings spread?

The war with Spain in 1898 bolstered national confidence; altered older, more insular patterns of thought; and reshaped how Americans saw themselves and the world. Its outcome pleased some people but troubled others, who raised questions about war itself, colonies, and subject peoples. The war left a lingering strain of isolationism and antiwar feeling that affected later policy. It also left an American empire, small by European standards, but new to the American experience because it was overseas. When the war ended, American possessions stretched into the Caribbean and deep into the Pacific. American influence went further still, and the United States was recognized as a "world power."

How did people feel after the Spanish-American war?

Why did voters keep the bosses in power? The answers are complex, but two reasons were skillful political organization and the fact that immigrants and others made up the bosses' constituency. Most immigrants had little experience with democratic government and proved easy prey for well-oiled machines. However, the bosses stayed in power mostly because they paid attention to the needs of the least-privileged city voters. They offered valued services in an era when neither traditional government nor business lent a hand. If an immigrant, tired and bewildered after crossing the ocean, came looking for a job, bosses like Tweed or Buckley found him one in city offices or local businesses. If a family's breadwinner died or was injured, the bosses donated food and clothing and saw the family through the crisis.

How did the bosses keep their power?

The depression of 1893 jarred the young settlement workers, many of whom had just begun their work. In cities and towns across the country, traditional methods of helping the needy foundered in the crisis. Churches, charity-organization societies, and community chests did what they could, but their resources were limited, and they functioned on traditional lines. Many of them still tried to change rather than aid individual families, and people were often reluctant to call on them for help.

How did the depression of 1893 impact the young settlement workers?

The rise of cities and industry between 1877 and the 1890s affected all aspects of American life. Customs changed; family ties loosened. Factories turned out consumer goods, and the newly invented cash register rang up record sales. Public and private educational systems burgeoned, illiteracy declined, life expectancy increased. While many people worked harder just to survive, others had more leisure time. The roles of women and children changed, and the family took on functions it had not had before. Thanks to technological advances, news flashed across the oceans, and for the first time in history, people read of the day's events in distant lands in their daily newspapers.

How did the growth of cities and industries affect America?

Middle-class gentlemen dressed in heavy black suits, derby hats, and white shirts with paper collars. Women wore tight corsets, long dark dresses, and black shoes reaching well above the ankles. As with so many things, styles changed dramatically toward 1900, spurred in part by new sporting fads such as golf, tennis, and bicycling, which required looser clothing. By the 1890s, a middle-class woman wore a tailored suit or a dark skirt and a blouse, called a shirtwaist, modeled after men's shirts. Her skirts still draped about the ankles, but she increasingly removed or loosened the corset, the dread device that squeezed internal organs into fashionable 18-inch waistlines.

How did the middle-class dress in 1877?

Middle-class wives and children, however, became increasingly isolated from the world of work, and the middle-class family became more self-contained. Older children spent more time in adolescence, and formal schooling lengthened. Families took in fewer apprentices and boarders. By 1900, more middle-class offspring lived with their parents into their late teens and twenties than do today. Fewer middle-class wives participated directly in their husbands' work. As a result, they and their children occupied what contemporaries called a "separate sphere of domesticity," set apart from the masculine sphere of income-producing work. The family home became a "walled garden," a retreat from the crass materialism of the outside world. Middle-class fathers began to move their families out of the city to the suburbs, commuting to work on the new streetcars, leaving wives and children at home and school. The middle-class family had once functioned in part to transmit a craft or skill, arrange marriages, and care for dependent kin. As these functions declined, the family took on new emotional and ideological responsibilities. In a society that worried about the weakening hold of other institutions, the family became an important means of social control.

How did the middle-class family vary from others in the 1870s?

Adolescence—the special nature of the teenage years—was still only a vague concept, but the role of children was changing. Less and less were children perceived as "little adults," valued for the financial gain they might bring the family. Now children were to grow, learn, and be nurtured rather than rushed into adulthood. As a result, schooling became more important, and the attainment of universal education for American children was closer than ever before. By 1900, 31 states and territories (out of 51) had made school compulsory, though most required attendance only until age 14. In 1870, there were only 160 public high schools; in 1900, there were 6,000. Illiteracy declined from 20 percent to just over 10 percent of the population. Still, even in 1900, the average adult had only five years of schooling.

How did the perception of children change during the late 1800 and early 1900s?

In and out of the family, self-sufficient women, employed in factories, telephone exchanges, or offices, were increasingly entering the workforce. Most were single and worked because they had to rather than chose to. Many regarded this "new woman" as a corruption of the ideal vision of the American woman, in which man worshiped "a diviner self than his own," innocent, helpless, and good. Women were to be better th an the world around them. They were brought up, said Ida Tarbell, a leading political reformer, "as if wrongdoing were impossible to them."

How did women change in the 18700s?

Nearly 150 new colleges and universities opened between 1880 and 1900. The Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 gave the states land to establish colleges to teach "agriculture and the mechanic arts." The act fostered 69 "land-grant" institutions, including the great state universities of Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, and Illinois. Private philanthropy, born of the large fortunes of the industrial age, also spurred growth in higher education. Leland Stanford gave $24 million to endow Stanford University on his California ranch, and John D. Rockefeller, founder of the Standard Oil Company, gave $34 million to found the University of Chicago. Other industrialists established Cornell (1865), Vanderbilt (1873), and Tulane (1884).

How many colleges opened between 1880 and 1900?

School began early; boys attended all day, but girls often stayed home after lunch, since they were thought to need less learning. Many children dropped out of school, and not just to earn money. Helen Todd, a factory inspector in Chicago, found young girls working in a hot, stuffy attic. When she asked why they were not in school, Tillie Isakowsky, who was 14, said, "School! School is de fiercest t'ing youse kin come up against. Factories ain't no cinch, but schools is worst." Todd asked 500 children whether they would go to school or work in a factory if their families did not need the money—412 preferred the factory. The South lagged far behind in education. The average family size was about twice as large as in the North, and a greater proportion of the population lived in isolated rural areas. State and local authorities mandated fewer weeks in the average school year, and many southern states refused to adopt compulsory education laws. Most important, southerners insisted on maintaining segregated school systems—North Carolina and Alabama in 1876, South Carolina and Louisiana in 1877, Mississippi in 1878, and Virginia in 1882. Supreme Court decisions in the 1880s and 1890s upheld the legality of segregation. In the Civil Rights Cases (1883), the Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment barred state governments from discriminating on account of race but did not prevent private individuals or organizations from doing so. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Court established the "separate but equal" doctrine and upheld a Louisiana law requiring different seating in railroad cars for whites and blacks. In Cumming v. County Board of Education (1899), the Court approved the creation of separate schools for whites, even if there were no comparable schools for blacks. Segregated schooling added a devastating financial burden to education in the South.

How was education in the south compared to the north and what were some of the court cases that changed some of the segregation rules?

The population continued to grow. In 1877, the country had 47 million people. In 1900, it had nearly 76 million. Nine-tenths of the population was white; just under one-tenth was black. There were 66,000 American Indians, 108,000 Chinese, and 148 Japanese. The bulk of the white population, most of whom were Protestant, came from the so-called Anglo-Saxon countries of northern Europe: Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia. WASPs—white Anglo-Saxon Protestants—dominated American society.

How was the population growing between 1877 and 1900?

In 1890, nearly half the dwellings in New York City were tenements. That year, more than 1.4 million people lived on Manhattan Island, one of whose wards had a population density of 334,000 people per square mile. Many people lived in alleys and basements so dark they could not be photographed there until flashlight photography was invented in 1887. Exploring the city, the novelist William Dean Howells inhaled "the stenches of the neglected street [... and] the yet fouler and dreadfuller poverty smell which breathes from the open doorways."

In 1890, what were nearly half the dwellings in New York City?

Cities had increasingly large foreign-born populations. In 1900, four-fifths of Chicago's population was foreign-born or of foreign-born parentage; two-thirds of Boston's; and one-half of Philadelphia's. New York City, where most immigrants arrived and many stayed, had more Italians than Naples, more Germans than Hamburg, and twice as many Irish as Dublin. Four out of five New York City residents in 1890 were of foreign birth or foreign parentage.

In 1900 were there a lot of foreign-born residents?

Cities dumped their wastes into the nearest body of water, then drew drinking water from the same site. Many built purified waterworks but could not keep pace with spiraling growth. In 1900, fewer than one in ten city dwellers drank filtered water. Factories, the pride of the era, polluted the urban air.

In 1900, how was the water quality?

In the 1800s cities did not grow at an even rate; birth rate among city dwellers was not enough to sustain growth

In the 1800s, did cities grow at an even rate?

Beginning in the 1880s, immigration shifted away from northern and western Europe, the chief source of immigration for more than two centuries. More and more immigrants now came from southern and eastern Europe: Italy, Greece, Austria-Hungary, Poland, and Russia. Between 1880 and 1910, approximately 8.4 million people came from these lands (see Figure 19.1). The new immigrants tended to be Catholics or Jews rather than Protestants. Like their predecessors, most were unskilled rather than skilled, and they often spoke "strange" languages. Most were poor and uneducated; they clung to their native customs, languages, and religions in close-knit communities.

In the 1880s, where in most of the foreign immigrants come from and what religion were most of them?

Crime was a problem. The nation's homicide rate nearly tripled in the 1880s, much of the increase coming in the cities. Slum youths formed street gangs with names such as the Hayes Valley Gang in San Francisco and the Baxter Street Dudes, the Daybreak Boys, and the Alley Gang in New York. After remaining constant for decades, the suicide rate rose steadily between 1870 and 1900, according to a study of Philadelphia. Alcoholism also rose, especially among men, though studies have shown that for working-class men, the urban saloon was as much a gathering spot as a place to drink. Nonetheless, in 1905, Chicago had as many saloons as grocery stores, meat markets, and dry goods stores combined.

Was crime a problem in 1900?

Racism, was not limited to the South, as race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois (1917), and Chicago (1919), among other events, attested. In 1903, the New York public school system banned Uncle Tom's Cabin from its reading lists, saying that Harriet Beecher Stowe's depiction of antebellum slavery "does not belong to today but to an unhappy period of our country's history, the memory of which it is not well to revive in our children." Encountering the racism of the North—far less brutal but racism nonetheless—blacks who had migrated there called it James Crow.

Was racism limited to the South?

Although the Republicans were successful in passing their agenda, they alienated many voters. This trend hurt Republican candidates in the elections of 1890. In 1890, the Populists took the national stage.

Were Republicans successful at passing their agenda?

Cards, dominoes, backgammon, chess, and checkers were popular. Many homes had a packet of "author cards" that required knowledge of books, authors, and quotations. The latest fad was the stereopticon or "magic lantern," which brought three-dimensional life to art, history, and nature. Like author cards and other games, it was both instructional and entertaining.

Were games popular in the 1870s?

Women still had to fight for educational opportunities. Some formed study clubs, an important movement that spread rapidly between 1870 and 1900. Club members read Virgil and Chaucer, studied history and architecture, and discussed women's rights. Clubs sprang up almost everywhere there were women: in Caribou, Maine; Tyler, Texas; and Leadville, Colorado—as well as San Francisco, New York, and Boston. Although they were usually small, study clubs sparked interest in education among women and their daughters and contributed to a rapid rise in the number of women entering college in the early 1900s.

Were many clubs formed formed to discuss women's rights?

Most bosses became wealthy; they were not Robin Hoods who took from the rich to give to the poor. They also took for themselves. Reformers occasionally ousted them. Tweed fell from power in 1872, "Blind Boss" Buckley in 1891, Croker in 1894. But the reformers rarely stayed in power. Drawn mainly from the middle and upper classes, they did not understand the needs of the poor. "What tells in holdin' your grip on your district," Tammany's George Washington Plunkitt once said, "is to go right down among the poor families and help them in the different ways they need help ... . It's philanthropy, but it's politics, too—mighty good politics ... . The poor are the most grateful people in the world."

Were most bosses wealthy or poor?

After the Civil War Democrats & Republicans divided the electorate almost evenly. The Federal government in DC decreased in importance; local & state governments increased in importance. Ex. of state government activity: Setting up commissions to investigate railroads & factories

Were the Democrats and Republicans in the electorate divided evenly after the Civil War?

Religious and patriotic values were strong. A center of community life, the church often set the tenor for family and social relationships. In the 1880s, eight out of ten church members were Protestants; most of the rest were Roman Catholics.

Were the religious and patriotic values strong in 1877?

Few opportunities existed for African Americans and other minorities. Jane Stanford encouraged the Chinese who had worked on her husband's Central Pacific Railroad to apply to Stanford University, but that was unusual. Most colleges did not accept minority students, and only a few applied. W. E. B. Du Bois, the brilliant African American sociologist and civil-rights leader, attended Harvard in the late 1880s but found the social life of Harvard Yard closed to him. Disdained and disdainful, he "asked no fellowship of my fellow students." Chosen as one of the commencement speakers, Du Bois picked as his topic "Jefferson Davis," the president of the Confederacy, treating it, said an onlooker, with "an almost contemptuous fairness." Most black students turned to black colleges such as the Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute in Virginia and the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Whites who favored manual training for blacks often supported these colleges. Booker T. Washington, an ex-slave, put his educational ideas into practice at Tuskegee, which opened in 1881. Washington began Tuskegee with limited funds, four run-down buildings, and only 30 students; by 1900, it was a model industrial and agricultural school. Spread over 46 buildings, it offered instruction in 30 trades to 1,400 students.

Were there many opportunities for African Americans to study in college?

Beginning in the 1880s, the age of steel and glass produced the skyscraper, and the streetcar produced the suburbs and new residential patterns. Buildings were usually made of masonry, and since the massive walls had to support their own weight, they could only be a dozen or so stories tall. But steel frames and girders allowed buildings to go higher and higher. "Curtain walls," which concealed the steel framework, were no longer load bearing; they were pierced by many windows that let in fresh air and light.

What allowed for the production of he skyscraper?

Exs. of building Presidential authority: Hayes - ending military Reconstruction Garfield - worked to reunite the Republican party Chester Arthur - pushed for a strong navy & civil service reform Grover Cleveland - used the "veto" many times (on more than 2/3 of the bills that reached him)

What are some examples of building Presidential authority.

McKinley ordered the battleship Maine to Havana to demonstrate strength and protect American citizens if necessary. On February 9, 1898, the New York Journal, a leader of the yellow press, published a letter stolen from Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, the Spanish minister in Washington. In the letter, which was private correspondence to a friend, de Lôme called McKinley "weak," "a would-be politician," and "a bidder for the admiration of the crowd." The insult angered Americans; McKinley himself was more worried about sections of the letter that revealed Spanish insincerity in the negotiations. De Lôme immediately resigned and went home, but the damage was done.

What battleship did McKinley order to Maine?

Organized sports began during 1877 and 1900 to attract fans.

What began during 1877 and 1900?

Immigrants caused a reaction called nativism (prejudice found among established residents against outsiders/new comers.

What caused the creation of nativism?

Read and reread, passed from hand to hand, Henry George's bestseller Progress and Poverty (1879) led to a more critical appraisal of American society in the 1880s and beyond. The book jolted traditional thought. Disturbed by an economic depression in the 1870s and by labor upheavals such as the great railroad strikes of 1877 (see Chapter 18), George saw modern society—rich, complex, with material goods hitherto unknown—as sadly flawed: "The wealthy class is becoming more wealthy; but the poorer class is becoming more dependent. The gulf between the employed and the employer is growing wider; social contrasts are becoming sharper ... ." George proposed a simple solution. Land, he thought, formed the basis of wealth, and a few people could grow wealthy just because the price of their land rose. Since the rise in price did not result from any effort on their part, it represented an "unearned increment" that should be taxed for the good of society. A "single tax" on the increment, replacing all other taxes, would help equalize wealth and raise revenue to aid the poor. "Single-tax" clubs sprang up around the country; but George's solution, simplistic and unappealing, had much less impact than his analysis of the problem itself. He raised questions a generation of readers set out to answer.

What did "Progress and Poverty" suggest?

Booker T. Washington stressed patience, manual training, and hard work. "The wisest among my race understand," he said in an acclaimed speech to a white audience at the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition in 1895, "that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly." Blacks should focus on economic gains; they should go to school, learn skills, and work their way up the ladder: "No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top." Southern whites should help out, he said, because they would then have "the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen." Washington's philosophy became known as the Atlanta Compromise, and many whites and some blacks welcomed it. Acknowledging white domination, it called for slow progress through self-improvement, not through lawsuits or agitation. Rather than fighting for equal rights, blacks should acquire property and show they were worthy of their rights. But Washington did believe in black equality. He worked behind the scenes to organize black voters and lobby against harmful laws. In his own way, he bespoke a racial pride that contributed to the rise of black nationalism in the twentieth century.

What did Booker T. Washington stress about African American education?

George's emphasis on the effects of deprivation in the social environment excited a young country lawyer in Ohio—Clarence Darrow. Unlike the social Darwinists, Darrow was sure that criminals were made and not born. They grew out of "the unjust condition of human life." In the mid-1880s, he left for Chicago and a 40-year career working to convince people that poverty lay at the root of crime. "There is no such thing as crime as the word is generally understood," he told startled prisoners in the Cook County jail. "If every man, woman, and child in the world had a chance to make a decent, fair, honest living there would be no jails and no lawyers and no courts."

What did Clarence Darrow think about crime?

Cleveland forced the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. But economic problems persisted. Cleveland's failure to solve the country's economic problems reduced the political power of the Democratic party. In 1894, the Republicans won big in Congressional elections

What did Cleveland do to the Sherman Silver Purchase Act?

Du Bois wanted a more aggressive strategy. Born in Massachusetts in 1868, the son of poor parents, he studied at Fisk University in Tennessee and the University of Berlin in Germany before attending Harvard. Unable to find a teaching job in a white college, he took a low-paying research position at the University of Pennsylvania. He had no office but did not need one. Du Bois used the new discipline of sociology, which emphasized factual observation in the field, to study the condition of blacks. Notebook in hand, he examined crime in Philadelphia's black seventh ward. He interviewed 5,000 people, mapped and classified neighborhoods, and produced The Philadelphia Negro (1898). The first study of the effect of urban life on blacks, it cited a wealth of statistics, all suggesting that crime in the ward stemmed not from inborn degeneracy but from the environment in which blacks lived. Change the environment, and people would change, too; education was a good way to go about it. In The Souls of Black Folk (1903), Du Bois openly attacked Booker T. Washington and the philosophy of the Atlanta Compromise. He urged African Americans to aspire to professional careers, fight for their civil rights, and get a college education. Calling for integrated schools with equal opportunity for all, Du Bois urged blacks to educate their "talented tenth," a highly trained intellectual elite, to lead them.

What did Du Bois strategy compare to Booker T. Washington's?

Meals tended to be heavy, and so did people. Even breakfast had several courses and could include steak, eggs, fish, potatoes, toast, and coffee. Food was cheap. Families ate fresh homegrown produce in the summer and "put up" their fruits and vegetables for the long winters. Toward the end of the century, eating habits changed. Packaged breakfast cereals became popular; fresh fruit and vegetables came in on fast trains from Florida and California; and commercially canned food became safer and cheaper. The newfangled icebox, cooled by blocks of ice, kept food fresher and added new treats such as ice cream.

What did food look like during the late 1800s?

Educating the Masses: Most teaching was unimaginative & routine These problems were compounded by segregation & poverty in Southern schools The US Supreme Court sanctioned "separate but equal" school systems in 1896 (Plessy v. Ferguson) - legal approval of discrimination

What were characteristics for education during 1877 and 1900?

Immigrant associations—every city had many of them—offered fellowship in a strange land. They helped newcomers find jobs and homes; they provided services such as unemployment insurance and health insurance. In a Massachusetts textile town, the Irish Benevolent Society said, "We visit our sick, and bury our dead." Some groups were no larger than a neighborhood; others spread nationwide. In 1914, the Deutsch-Amerikanischer Nationalbund (German-American National Association), the largest of the associations, had more than 2 million members in dozens of cities and towns. Many women belonged to these immigrant associations and participated in their work. There were also groups exclusively for women, such as the Polish Women's Alliance, the Society of Czech Women, and the National Council of Jewish Women.

What did immigrant associations do?

Magazines such as the Ladies' Home Journal, which started in 1889, glorified motherhood and the home, and its articles and ads featured women as homebound, child-oriented consumers. While society's leaders praised the value of homemaking, housewives' status declined under the factory system, which emphasized money rewards and devalued household labor. Underlying these changes was one of the modern world's most important trends, a decline in fertility rates that lasted from 1800 to 1939. Though blacks, immigrants, and rural dwellers had more children than white native-born city dwellers, the trend affected all classes and races; among white women, the birthrate fell from seven in 1800 to just over four in 1880 to about three in 1900. People everywhere tended to marry later and to have fewer children. Since contraceptives were not yet widely used, the decline reflected abstinence and a conscious decision to postpone or limit families. Some women decided to devote greater attention to fewer children, others to pursue careers. The number of young unmarried women working for wages, attending school, delaying marriage, or not marrying at all increased, while rates of illegitimacy and premarital pregnancy declined. The decline in fertility largely stemmed from people's responses to social and economic forces, the rise of cities and the rise of industry. Couples decided to have fewer children, and the result reshaped American society.

What did magazines do during the 1870s?

Medical science was undergoing a revolution. Louis Pasteur's discovery that germs cause infection and disease created the new science of microbiology and led the way to new vaccines and other preventive measures. But tuberculosis, typhoid, diphtheria, and pneumonia—all now curable—were still the leading causes of death. Infant mortality gradually declined between 1877 and 1900, but a great drop did not come until after 1920. There were few hospitals and no hospital insurance. Most patients stayed at home, although medical practice, especially surgery, expanded rapidly. Once brutal and dangerous, surgery became relatively safe and painless. Anesthetics—ether and chloroform—eliminated pain, and antiseptics helped prevent postoperative infections. Antiseptic practices at childbirth reduced puerperal fever, an infection that for centuries had killed women and newborns. The new science of psychology began to explore the mind, hitherto uncharted. William James, a leading American psychologist and philosopher, laid the foundations of modern behavioral psychology, which stressed the importance of the environment on human development.

What did medical science do during in late 1800s and early 1900s?

Closely connected with urban growth was the emergence of the powerful city political machine. As cities grew, lines of responsibility in city governments became hopelessly confused, increasing the opportunity for corruption and greed. Burgeoning populations required streets, buildings, and public services; immigrants needed even more services. In this situation, political party machines flourished. The machines traded services for votes. A strong leader—the "boss"—tied together a loose network of ward and precinct captains, each of whom looked after his local constituents. In New York, "Honest" John Kelly, Richard Croker, and Charles F. Murphy led Tammany Hall, the famous Democratic Party organization that dominated city politics from the 1850s to the 1930s. Other bosses included "Hinky Dink" Kenna and "Bathhouse John" Coughlin in Chicago, James McManes in Philadelphia, and Christopher A. Buckley—the notorious "Blind Boss," who used an exceptional memory for voices to make up for his failing eyesight—in San Francisco.

What did political party machines do?

Power structures in the turn-of-the-century city involved many people and institutions. Banks, real-estate investors, insurance companies, architects, and engineers, among others, played roles in governing the city. Many city governments were remarkably successful. With populations that in some cases doubled every decade, city governments provided water and sewer lines, built parks and playgrounds, and paved streets. They gave Boston the world's largest public library; and New York City, the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park, two of the finest achievements in city planning and architecture of any era. By the 1890s, New York also had 660 miles of water lines, 464 miles of sewers, and 1,800 miles of paved streets, far more than comparable cities in Europe.

What did power structures involve?

Restrictionists succeeded in curbing immigration from China, with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882; they would win a broader victory in 1924 with the Immigration Act, which set rigid quotas on immigration. Another law, passed in 1965, loosened the restrictions, and still another, in 1986, provided a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants who had arrived illegally. Attitudes toward immigration often reflected the state of the economy, with hard times hardening resistance against newcomers who might take jobs that were already in short supply.

What did restrictionists succeed in doing?

Studies of the poor popped up everywhere. Du Bois carried out his pioneering study of urban blacks; Lillian Pettengill worked as a servant to see "the ups and downs of this particular dog-life from the dog's end of the chain." Others became beggars, miners, lumberjacks, and factory laborers. William T. Stead, a prominent British editor, visited the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and stayed to examine the city. He roamed the flophouses and tenements and dropped in at Hull House to drink hot chocolate and talk over conditions with Jane Addams. Later he wrote an influential book, If Christ Came to Chicago (1894), and in a series of mass meetings during 1893, he called for a civic revival. In response, Chicagoans formed the Civic Federation, a group of 40 leaders who aimed to make Chicago "the best governed, the healthiest city in this country." Setting up task forces for philanthropy, moral improvement, and legislation, they helped spawn the National Civic Federation (1900), a nationwide organization devoted to reforming urban life.

What did some of the studies of the poor show?

A religious philosophy known as the Social Gospel reflected many of the new trends. As the name suggests, the Social Gospel focused on society as well as individuals, on improving living conditions as well as saving souls. Sermons in Social Gospel churches called on church members to fulfill their social obligations, and adults met before and after the regular service to discuss social and economic problems. Children were excused from sermons, organized into age groups, and encouraged to make the church a center for social and religious activity. Soon churches included dining halls, gymnasiums, and even theaters.

What did the "Social Gospel" try to do?

The Republicans used this opportunity to push through their legislative program. Passage of the "McKinley" Tariff - a tax on imports; at the time the highest rates in US history. As the party of the Union & the Union army, Republicans granted pensions to veterans or their survivors. The passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was designed to regulate, but not hurt corporations. It was a compromise between the gold & silver standard for US currency Federal govt. bought a set amount of silver each month. Citizens could decide if they wanted paper money backed by silver or gold

What did the Republicans do when they won control of Congress?

Southern members of the "Alliance" formed the "Populist Party." The Populists ran James Weaver of Iowa for President in 1892 and he was not elected but made a strong national showing. Election results for Populists (1892) - won 2 governor's races, 10 seats in the House of Representatives, & 5 seats in the Senate

What did the Southern members of the "Alliance" form?

In the 1870s, people rose early. They washed from a pitcher and bowl in the bedroom. After dressing and eating, they went to work and school. Without refrigerators, housewives marketed almost daily. In the evening, families gathered in the "second parlor" or living room, where the children did their lessons, played games, sang around the piano, and listened to that day's verse from the Bible.

What did the day of the average person look like in the 1870s?

Middle class families: living in suburbs meant father was gone all day; mother restricted to "just being a housewife"

What did the family life of middle class families look like?

Poor families: Long hours of hard work crushed family life

What did the family life of poor families look like?

The Spanish-American War established the United States as a dominant force for the twentieth century. It brought America colonies, millions of colonial subjects, and the responsibilities of governing an empire and protecting it. For better or worse, it involved the country in other nations' arguments and affairs. The war strengthened the office of the presidency, swept up the nation in a tide of emotion, and confirmed Americans' long-standing belief in the superiority of the New World over the Old. When it was over, Americans looked outward as never before, touched, they were sure, with a special destiny.

What established the US as a dominant force?

At 9:40 in the evening of February 15, an explosion tore through the hull of the Maine, riding at anchor in Havana harbor. The ship, a trim symbol of the new steel navy, sank quickly; 266 lives were lost. McKinley cautioned patience and promised an immediate investigation. Crowds gathered on Capitol Hill and outside the White House, mourning the lost men. Soon there was a new slogan: "Remember the Maine and to Hell with Spain!" The most recent study of the Maine incident blames the sinking on an accidental internal explosion, caused perhaps by spontaneous combustion in poorly ventilated coal bunkers. In 1898, Americans blamed it on Spain. Spaniards were hanged in effigy in many communities. Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, and others urged war, but McKinley hoped that Spain might yet agree to an armistice and perhaps Cuban independence.

What happened to the "Maine?"

The office of the Presidency reached a low point in its political power under Andrew Johnson (i.e. impeachment). Presidents after Johnson had to rebuild the powers of the executive branch

What happened with the presidency after the Civil War?

The depression contributed to labor/employer tension in Midwestern mines. Cleveland blamed the depression on the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Of course! He was a Democrat and the act was Republican legislation. Cleveland argued that this act allowed too much gold to leave the US treasury

What is one thing that the depression contributed to?

Sentimental ballads such as "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (1873) remained the most popular musical form, but the insistent syncopated rhythms of ragtime reflected the influence of the new urban culture. By the time Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899) popularized ragtime, critics complained that "a wave of vulgar, filthy, and suggestive music has inundated the land." Classical music flourished. The New England Conservatory (1867), the Cincinnati College of Music (1878), and the Metropolitan Opera (1883) were new sources of civic pride; New York, Boston, and Chicago launched first-rate symphony orchestras between 1878 and 1891.

What kind of music was popular in the 1870s?

To house those who remained crowded in city centers a new type of building was created: the Tenement. Floor plans often resembled a giant dumbbell. It was usually 7 - 8 stories in height

What new type of building was made between 1877 and 1900?

Before the Civil War, only three private colleges admitted women to study with men. After the war, educational opportunities increased for women. Women's colleges were founded, including Vassar (1861), Wellesley (1870), Smith (1871), Bryn Mawr (1885), Barnard (1889), and Radcliffe (1894). The land-grant colleges of the Midwest, open to women from the outset, spurred a nationwide trend toward coeducation, although some physicians, such as Harvard Medical School's Dr. Edward H. Clarke in his popular Sex in Education (1873), argued that the strain of learning made women sterile. By 1900, women made up about 40 percent of college students, and four out of five colleges admitted them.

What opportunities opened up for women to study in college?

Urbanization & industrialization profoundly changed family life in America

What profoundly changed family life in America?

More than any previous group, the so-called new immigrants troubled mainstream society. Could they be assimilated? Did they share "American" values? Such questions preoccupied groups like the American Protective Association, a midwestern anti-Catholic organization that expanded in the 1890s and worked to limit or end immigration. Anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism flared up again, as they had in the 1850s. The Immigration Restriction League, founded in 1894, demanded a literacy test for immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. Congress passed such a law in 1896, but President Grover Cleveland vetoed it as violating the country's traditions.

What societies were formed with the increase of foreign immigration?

Evenings became "prime-time" for entertainment due to the invention of streetlights

What time of day was "prime-time" for entertainment due to the invention of streetlights?

"The National Farmers' Alliance & Industrial Union" took the place of the Grange in protecting farmers' political interests. In 1890 the "Alliance" announced its demands.

What took the place of the Grange?

Ragtime music was becoming more popular.

What type of music was becoming popular between 1877 and 1900?

On the surface Populism was a farmers' movement but it really appealed to anyone who felt aggrieved (groups like African-Americans & women)

What was Populism?

One of the results of the "Panic" & ensuing economic depression was a large number of jobless people demanding relief & assistance. The depression also heightened tensions between capital & labor

What was one of the results of the "Panic?"

Like settlement workers in other cities, Addams and her colleagues studied the immigrants in nearby tenements. Laboriously, they identified the background of every family in a one-third-square-mile area around Hull House. Finding people of 18 different nationalities, they taught them American history and the English language; yet Addams also encouraged them to preserve their own heritage through folk festivals and art. But the settlement-house movement had its limits. Although Hull House, one of the best, attracted 2,000 visitors a week, this was still just a fraction of the 70,000 people who lived within six blocks of it. Immigrants sometimes resented the middle-class "strangers" who told them how to live. Dressed always in a brown suit and dark stockings, Harriet Vittum, the head resident of Chicago's Northwestern University Settlement (who told the story of the suicide victim at the beginning of this chapter), was known as "the police lady in brown." She once stopped a dance because it was too wild, and then was disgusted when the boys made "vulgar sounds with their lips." Though her attempts to help were sincere, in private Vittum called the people she was trying to help "ignorant foreigners, who live in an atmosphere of low morals ... surrounded by anarchy and crime."

What was one of the things that Jane Addams did?

When Henry George, a leading reformer, asked a friend what could be done about political corruption in American cities, his friend replied: "Nothing! You and I can do nothing at all... . We can only wait for evolution. Perhaps in four or five thousand years evolution may have carried men beyond this state of things." This stress on the slow pace of change reflected the doctrine of social Darwinism, which argued against the usefulness of reform, and was based on the writings of the English philosopher Herbert Spencer. In influential books, Spencer applied Charles Darwin's principles of natural selection to society. He combined biological evolution and sociology to develop a theory of "social selection" that tried to explain human progress. Like animals, society evolved, slowly, by adapting to the environment. The "survival of the fittest"—Spencer's term, not Darwin's—preserved the strong and weeded out the weak. Social Darwinism had a number of influential followers in the United States, including William Graham Sumner, a professor of political and social science at Yale University. One of the country's best-known academics, Sumner was forceful and eloquent. In writings such as What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883) and "The Absurd Effort to Make the World Over" (1894), he argued that government action to help the poor or weak interfered with evolution and sapped the species. Reform tampered with the laws of nature. Social Darwinism's impact on American thinking has been exaggerated, but in the powerful hands of Sumner and others it did influence some journalists, ministers, and policymakers. Between 1877 and the 1890s, however, social Darwinism came under increasing attack. In religion, economics, politics, literature, and law, thoughtful people questioned established conditions and advocated reform.e Tom's Cabin from its reading lists, saying that Harriet Beecher Stowe's depiction of antebellum slavery "does not belong to today but to an unhappy period of our country's history, the memory of which it is not well to revive in our children." Encountering the racism of the North—far less brutal but racism nonetheless—blacks who had migrated there called it James Crow.

What was social Darwinism?

Circuses were becoming very popular between 1877 and 1900?

What was something that was popular between 1877 and 1900?

Liberal Protestant ministers preached the "Social Gospel" - introduced Christian standards in the field of American economics. After the Depression of 1893 reformers realized that private charity did not have the resources to tackle chronic problems/crises So they began to call for the government to intervene in order to secure social welfare

What was the "Social Gospel?"

Victorian morality, its name derived from the British queen who reigned from 1837 to 1901, set the tone for the era. The code prescribed strict standards of dress, manners, and sexual behavior. It was both obeyed and disobeyed and reflected the tensions of a generation whose moral standards were changing.

What was the Victorian morality?

In the shadow of the skyscrapers, grimy rows of tenements crowded people into cramped apartments in the central city. In the late 1870s, architect James E. Ware won a competition for tenement design with the "dumbbell tenement." Seven or eight stories high, the dumbbell tenement packed about 30 four-room apartments on a 25-by- 100-foot lot. Between 4 and 16 families lived on a floor with two shared toilets in the hall. Narrowed at the middle, the tenement was shaped like a giant dumbbell.

What was the dumbbell tenement?

Views changed, albeit slowly. One important change occurred in the legal codes, particularly in the common law doctrine of femme couverte. Under that doctrine, wives were their husbands' chattel; they could not legally control their own earnings, property, or children unless they had a specific contract before marriage. By 1890, many states had revised the doctrine to allow wives control of their earnings and inherited property. The new laws also recognized divorced women's rights to custody or joint custody of their children. Although divorce was still not socially acceptable, divorce rates more than doubled during the last third of the century. By 1905, one in 12 marriages ended in divorce.

What was the femme couverte?

Like Tweed and other bosses, social reformers living in the urban slums appreciated the dependency of the poor; unlike them, they wanted to eradicate the conditions that underlay it. To do so, they formed settlement houses in the slums and lived in them to experience the problems they were trying to solve.

What was the purpose of settlement houses?

There was a wave of sympathy for the insurgents, stimulated by the newspapers; but so-called yellow journalism, sensationalist reporting practiced mainly by a handful of newspapers in New York City that were eager to increase sales, did not cause the war. The conflict stemmed from larger disputes in policies and perceptions between Spain and the United States. Grover Cleveland, under whose administration the rebellion began, preferred Spanish rule to the kind of turmoil that might invite foreign intervention. Opposed to the annexation of Cuba, he issued a proclamation of neutrality and tried to restrain public opinion.

What was yellow journalism?

Gradually, a new class of professional social workers filled the need. Unlike the church and charity volunteers, these social workers wanted not only to feed the poor but to study their condition and alleviate it. Revealingly, they called themselves "case workers" and collected data on the income, housing, jobs, health, and habits of the poor. Prowling tenement districts, they gathered information about the number of rooms and occupants, ventilation, and sanitation of the buildings, putting together a fund of useful data.

What were "case workers?"

Youthful, idealistic, and mostly middle class, these social workers took as their model Toynbee Hall, founded in 1884 in the slums of East London to provide community services to the British poor. Stanton Coit, a moody and poetic graduate of Amherst College, was the first American to borrow the settlement-house idea; in 1886, he opened the Neighborhood Guild on New York's Lower East Side. The idea spread. By 1900, there were more than 100 settlements in the country; five years later, more than 200; and by 1910, more than 400. The settlements included Jane Addams's famous Hull House in Chicago (1889), Robert A. Woods's South End House in Boston (1892), and Lillian Wald's Henry Street Settlement in New York (1893). The reformers wanted to bridge the socioeconomic gap between rich and poor and bring education, culture, and hope to the slums. They sought to create in the heart of the city the values and sense of community of small-town America.

What were most of the settlement houses based off of?

With slavery abolished, reformers turned their attention to new moral and political issues. One group, known as the Mugwumps, worked to end corruption in politics. Other zealous reformers campaigned for prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors, hoping to end the social evils that stemmed from drunkenness. In 1874, women who advocated total abstinence from alcoholic beverages formed the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Frances E. Willard was president of the group from 1879 until her death in 1898. By then, the WCTU had 500,000 members.

What were some of the groups that formed after slavery was abolished?

Fairs, horse races, balloon ascensions, bicycle tournaments, and football and baseball contests attracted avid fans. The popularity of organized spectator sports between 1870 and 1900 reflected both the rise of the city and new uses of leisure. Baseball's first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, appeared in 1869, and baseball soon became the preeminent national sport. Fans sang songs about it ("Take Me Out to the Ballgame"), wrote poems about it ("Casey at the Bat"), and made up riddles about it ("What has 18 feet and catches flies?"). Modern rules were adopted. Umpires were designated to call balls and strikes; catchers wore masks and chest protectors and moved closer to the plate instead of staying back to catch the ball on the bounce. Fielders had to catch the ball on the fly rather than on one bounce in their caps. By 1890, professional baseball games were drawing crowds of 60,000. In 1901, the American League was organized. Two years later the Boston Red Sox beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first modern World Series. In 1869, Princeton and Rutgers played the first intercollegiate football game. Soon, other schools picked up the sport. By the 1890s, crowds of 50,000 or more attended the most popular contests. Basketball, invented in 1891, gained a large following.

What were some of the most popular events to go to in the 1870s?

In the 1870s and 1880s, more women were asserting their own humanness. They fought for the vote, lobbied for equal pay, and sought self-fulfillment. The new interest in psychology and medicine strengthened their causes. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of Women and Economics (1898), argued that the ideal of womanly "innocence" actually meant ignorance. In medical and popular literature, menstruation, sexual intercourse, and childbirth were becoming discussed as natural functions instead of taboo topics. For example, Edward Bliss Foote's Plain Home Talk of Love, Marriage, and Parentage, a bestseller between the 1880s and 1900, challenged Victorian notions that sexual intercourse was unhealthy and intended solely to produce children. Women espoused causes with new fervor. Susan B. Anthony, a veteran of many reform campaigns, tried to vote in the 1872 presidential election and was fined $100, which she refused to pay. In 1890, she helped form the National American Woman Suffrage Association to work for the enfranchisement of women.

What were some of the things that women fought for in the 1870s and 1880s?

Victorian morals were seen most clearly in middle class men & women. It consisted of strict standards for dress, manners, & sexual behavior. It sponsored reform movements AGAINST alcohol & political corruption

What were the Victorian morals and where were they most clearly seen?

The root causes of the "Panic of 1893" were overexpansion in the economy and excessive borrowing. The immediate catalyst of the "Panic of 1893" was the failure of a major railroad. This rocked the NY Stock Exchange. The "Panic" worsened when drought destroyed the corn crop in 1894.

What were the caused of the "Panic of 1893?"

The church and the school were the most important institutions in every immigrant community. Eastern European Jews established synagogues and religious schools wherever they settled; they taught Hebrew and raised their children in a heritage they did not want to leave behind. Among such groups as the Irish and the Poles, the Roman Catholic Church provided spiritual and educational guidance. In parish schools, Polish priests and nuns taught Polish American children about Polish as well as American culture in the Polish language. Church, school, and fraternal societies shaped how immigrants adjusted to life in America. By preserving language, religion, and heritage, they also shaped the country itself.

What were the most important institutions in every immigrant community?

In the election of 1888 Benjamin Harrison (Republican) defeated Cleveland and the Republicans also won control of Congress

What were the results of the 1888 election?

Two of the factors fueling Populism & other protests were widespread hardship & heartache. One of the result of this depression was a realignment of American politics

What were two of the factors fueling Populism and other protests?

Taking office in March 1897, President McKinley also urged neutrality with Grover Cleveland but leaned slightly toward the insurgents. He sent an aide on a fact-finding mission to Cuba; the aide reported in mid-1897 that Weyler's policy had wrapped Cuba "in the stillness of death and the silence of desolation." McKinley then offered to mediate between Spain and the rebels, but, concerned over the suffering, he criticized Spain's "uncivilized and inhuman" conduct. The United States, he made clear, did not contest Spain's right to fight the rebellion but insisted it be done within humane limits.

When did McKinley take office?

After 1892, The Alliance began to lose members & political power

When did the Alliance begin to lose members and political power?

Electric elevators, first used in 1871, carried passengers upward in the new skyscrapers. During the same years, streetcars, another innovation, transformed urban life by carrying people outward. Cities were no longer largely "walking cities," confined to a radius of two or three miles, the distance a person might walk. Streetcar systems extended the city's radius and changed the urban habitat. Cable lines, electric surface lines, and elevated rapid transit brought shoppers and workers into central business districts and sped them home. For a modest five-cent fare with a free transfer, the mass transit systems fostered commuting, and widely separated business and residential districts sprang up. The middle class moved farther and farther out to the leafy greenness of the suburbs.

When were electric elevators first used?

While some of the new city dwellers came from farms and small towns, many more came from abroad. Most came from Europe, where unemployment, food shortages, and threats of war sent millions fleeing across the Atlantic to make a fresh start. Often they knew someone already in the United States, a friend or relative who had written them about jobs and freer lives in a new land. The immigration figures were staggering. Between 1877 and 1890, more than 6.3 million people entered the United States. In 1882 alone, almost 789,000 people came. By 1890, about 15 percent of the population, 9 million people, were foreign-born.

Where did most of the new city dwellers come from?

Though the rush to the cities was about to begin, most people in 1877 still lived on farms or in small towns. Their lives revolved around the farm, the church, and the general store. In 1880, nearly 75 percent of the population lived in communities of fewer than 2,500 people. In 1900, despite city growth, 60 percent still did. The average family in 1880 had four children, dramatically fewer than in 1800. Life expectancy was about 43 years. By 1900, improved health care and sanitation had raised it to 47 years. For blacks and other minorities, who often lived in unsanitary rural areas, life expectancy was only 33 years.

Where did most people live in 1877?

During the 1890s, the realm of politics was still dominated by white males

Who dominated the realm of politics in the 1890s?

Though Washington and Du Bois differed widely in their views, both of them fought the growing restrictions on black civil rights known as Jim Crow laws (see Chapter 16). While segregation and disfranchisement began as informal arrangements in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, they soon culminated in a legal regime of separation and exclusion that took firm hold in the 1890s. A number of influences lay behind their rapid growth. By the 1870s, many northerners had lost interest in guarding the rights of blacks. Weariness with Civil War issues played a role in this trend, as did beliefs in Anglo-Saxon superiority and, after the Spanish-American War of 1898, the acquisition of colonial subjects—called, revealingly, "the white man's burden"—in Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. As a result, the North and the federal government did little to stem the tide. Supreme Court decisions between 1878 and 1898 gutted the Reconstruction amendments and the legislation passed to enforce them, leaving blacks virtually defenseless against political and social discrimination.

Who fought for Jim Crow laws?

White males made up the bulk of the electorate; until after 1900, women could vote in national elections only in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Colorado. The National Woman Suffrage Association sued for the vote, but in 1875, the Supreme Court (in Minor v. Happersett) upheld the power of the states to deny them this right. Congress refused to pass a constitutional amendment for women's suffrage, and between 1870 and 1910, nearly a dozen states defeated referenda to grant women the vote. Black men were also kept from the polls. In 1877, Georgia adopted the poll tax to make voters pay an annual tax for the right to vote. The technique, aimed at disfranchising impoverished blacks, quickly spread across the South.

Who made up the bulk of the electorate?

Millions of immigrants populated US cities between 1875 and 1900 (ex. New York City)

Who population US cities between 1875 and 1900?

William M. Tweed, head of the famed Tweed Ring in New York, provided the model for all political party machines. Nearly six feet tall, weighing almost 300 pounds, Tweed rose through the ranks of Tammany Hall. He served in turn as city alderman, member of Congress, and New York State assemblyman. A warm, cultured man, he moved easily between the rough back alleys of New York and the parlors and clubs of the city's elite. Behind the scenes, he headed a ring that plundered New York for tens of millions of dollars.

Who was William M. Tweed?

Many of the settlement workers were women, some of them college graduates, who found that society had little use for their talents and energy. Jane Addams, a graduate of Rockford College in Illinois, opened Hull House on South Halsted Street in the heart of the Chicago slums. Twenty-nine years old, forceful and winning, she intended "to share the lives of the poor" and humanize the industrial city. "American ideals," she said, "crumbled under the overpowering poverty of the overcrowded city." Occupying an old, rundown house, Hull House stressed education, offering classes in elementary English and Shakespeare, lectures on ethics and the history of art, and courses in cooking, sewing, and manual skills. A pragmatist, Addams believed in investigating a problem and then doing something to solve it. Noting the lack of medical care in the area, she established an infant-welfare clinic and free medical dispensary. Because the tenements lacked bathtubs, she installed showers in the basement of Hull House and built a bathhouse. Because there was no local library, she opened a reading room. Hull House eventually occupied a dozen buildings, sprawling over more than a city block.

Who were most of the settlement workers?

The leaders of the movement were John Root and Louis H. Sullivan, both of whom were attracted by the chance to rebuild Chicago after a great fire destroyed much of the city in 1871. Noting that the fire had fed on fancy exterior ornamentation in buildings, Root developed a plain, stripped-down style, bold in mass and form—the keynotes of modern architecture. He had another important insight: In an age of business, the office tower, more than a church or government building, symbolized the society, and he designed office buildings that embodied, as he said, "the ideas of modern business life: simplicity, stability, breadth, dignity." Sullivan had studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and in Paris before settling in Chicago. In 1886, at age 30, he began work on the Chicago Auditorium, one of the last great masonry buildings. "Then came the flash of imagination which saw the single thing," he later said. "The trick was turned; and there swiftly came into being something new under the sun." Sullivan's "flash of imagination"—skyscrapers—changed the urban skyline.

Who were the leaders in the building of skyscrapers?

Cities grew between 1877 and 1900 because of immigrants from Europe and America.

Why did cities grow between 1877 and 1900?

Most newcomers were job seekers. Nearly two-thirds were males, most between the ages of 15 and 40. Most were unskilled laborers who settled on the East Coast. In 1901, the Industrial Relocation Office was established to relieve overcrowding in eastern cities; opening Galveston, Texas, as a port of entry, it attracted Russian Jews to Texas and the Southwest. But most immigrants preferred the shorter, more familiar journey to New York. Entering through Ellis Island in New York harbor, as four in every ten immigrants did, most of them crowded into northern and eastern cities, settling among others of their nationality or religion.

Why did most of the new city dwellers come?