The Gilded Age

Part 3: Immigration and Urbanization

Learning Targets

• I can analyze the impact of immigration and urbanization on American Culture in the late 19th century.

• I can explain the origins and impact of reform movements of the Gilded Age.

Why do the cities grow?

• Steel• More work• Railroads• Immigration

Immigration and Urbanization

Old Immigration• 1850-1880• Northern & Western Europe

– Britain– Scandinavia– Germany– Ireland

• Mostly literate, middle and upper classes

New Immigration• 1880-1920• Southern & Eastern Europe

– Russia– Croatia– Poland– Montenegro– Greece– Bosnia– Serbia – Italy

• Many Jews esp. from Russian controlled areas

• Still, lots of Germans and Irish• Mostly illiterate, lower class

Immigration and Urbanization

• Live in large cities, especially ports of entry– Ellis Island, NY– San Francisco, CA

• Live in enclaves• Many don’t assimilate• Forced by circumstance to take

low paying jobs• Reactions to Immigration

– Nativism– Political Machines– Reform

Immigration and Urbanization

• Housing problems• 1879 New York State

Tenement House Act• James Ware’s Dumbbell

Tenement

Growth of the Cities

Immigration and Urbanization

Reform:• “love thy neighbor as thyself”• Religious response to

problems of urban poor• Application of Christian

theology to social problems• Social rather than spiritual

features:– Gymnasiums– Libraries– Lecture rooms– Night schools

The Social Gospel Movement

Walter Rauschenbusch, Baptist minister

Immigration and Urbanization

Reform:• Hull House, Chicago (1889)• Jane Addams• Staffed by young, middle-class

women• Focused on practical needs of the

working poor• Aid to immigrant poor:

– English lessons– Childcare for working mothers– Helped register children for school– Health clinics– Job training

• Began over time to organize politically

The Settlement House

Immigration and Urbanization

Reform:• Women’s Christian

Temperance Union (WCTU)• Francis Willard• Carrie Nation

Temperance and Prohibition

Immigration and Urbanization

Other Results Mass media• Rise of ‘yellow journalism’• William Randolph Hearst &

Joseph Pulitzer

Other Results:• Sports

Entertainment

Other Results: Challenges to orthodox religion

• Darwin• Robert Ingersoll• spiritualism

1. Explain some of the difficulties labor unions faced in the United States. 2. Explain some of the differing reactions Americans had to the great wealth disparities between wealthy industrialists and working class immigrants and other laborers.