The American JourneyA History of the United States, 7th Edition

By: Goldfield • Abbott • Anderson • Argersinger • Argersinger • Barney • Weir

Chapter

•Industry, Immigrants,

and Cities

•1870-1900

18

Industry, Immigrants, and Cities

1870-1900

New Industry

New Immigrants

New Cities

Conclusion

Learning Objectives

How did workers respond to the changing demands of the

workplace in the late nineteenth century?

What kinds of communities did new immigrants create in

America?

How did the new cities help create the new middle class?

Introduction

The promise and failure of late-nineteenth-century America

involved a mixture of great prosperity and opportunity

contrasted by materialistic excesses and the masking of

deep economic and social divisions.

Gilded Age

Term applied to late-nineteenth-century America that refers to the

shallow display and worship of wealth characteristic of the period.

New Industry

New Industry

Between 1870 and 1900, the United States transformed

itself into the world’s foremost industrial power. However,

the increased concentration of economic power was

challenged by workers, reformers, and eventually

government.

FIGURE

18–1

Changes in

the

American

Labor

Force,

1870–1910

Inventing Technology:

The Electric Age

Technology played a major role in transforming factory work

and increasing the scale of production as steam and later

electricity freed manufacturers from dependence on water

power.

In the late 19th century, the United States became a

technological innovator. Between 1870 and 1900,

900,000 patents had been issued in the United States.

Inventing Technology:

The Electric Age (cont'd)

Thomas Edison’s success stimulated research and

development in Europe and the United States.

Invention gave the United States a commanding

technological lead.

The Corporation and Its Impact

The modern corporation supplied the structural framework

for the transformation of the American economy.

The corporation became a significant factor in the American

economy in the 1850s when railroad companies grew.

The Corporation and Its Impact (cont’d)

The two major advantages of the corporation were that a

corporation can outlive its founders and its officials and

shareholders are not personally liable for its debts.

Large corporations changed the nature of work and

stimulated urban growth.

The Corporation and Its Impact (cont’d)

Vertical and horizontal integration helped successful

corporations reduce competition and dominate industries.

Vertical integration

The consolidation of numerous production functions, from the extraction

of the raw materials to the distribution and marketing of the finished

products, under the direction of one firm.

Horizontal integration

The merger of competitors in the same industry.

The Corporation and Its Impact (cont’d)

Trusts

In late 19th- and early-20th-century usage, refers to monopolies that

eliminated competition and fixed prices and wages in a given industry.

Increasing numbers of American viewed these entities as threats to

the free enterprise system.

The Changing Nature of Work

By 1906, industrial labor had been reduced to minute, low-

skilled operations, making skilled artisans obsolete.

Mechanization and technological innovation did not reduce

employment but they did eliminate some jobs.

The Changing Nature of Work (cont’d)

Industrial workers shared little of the wealth generated by

industrial expansion. They labored under unsafe

conditions, generally working 10 hours a day, six days a

week for low wages.

Workers lived close to factories in poor environments.

The Changing Nature of Work (cont’d)

Many workers labored in small, cramped, poorly ventilated

sweatshops.

Sweatshops

Small, poorly ventilated shops or apartments crammed with workers,

often family members, who pieced together garments.

Child Labor

Many industries employed children, including mining,

garment trades, and textile mills.

Working Women

Low wages for men often required women to work.

Women earned lower wages than men and while more job

opportunities opened, low wages and poor working

conditions continued.

Working Women (cont’d)

Women also found employment in downtown department

stores.

By the beginning of the 20th century, women had gained

increased access to higher education.

Responses to Poverty and Wealth

The growing gap between rich and poor and concerns

about working women led to reform movements.

Tenement apartments crammed the urban poor into

crowded apartments in urban slums. The settlement

house arose to deal with the wretched conditions under

which the urban poor lived.

Responses to Poverty and Wealth (cont’d)

Industrialists, intellectuals, and some politicians supported

the Gospel of Wealth theory that helping the poor was of

doubtful value.

Responses to Poverty and Wealth (cont’d)

Social Darwinism was a flawed attempt to apply Charles

Darwin’s theories to human society with wealth reflecting

fitness and poverty weakness.

Tenement

Four- to six-story residential dwelling, once common in New York and

certain other cities, built on a tiny lot without regard to providing

ventilation or light.

Responses to Poverty and Wealth (cont’d)

Hull House

Chicago settlement house that became part of a broader neighborhood

Revitalization and immigrant assistance project led by Jane Addams.

Gospel of Wealth

Thesis that hard work and perseverance lead to wealth, implying that

poverty is a character flaw.

Responses to Poverty and Wealth (cont’d)

Social Darwinism

The application of Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution to

society, holding that the fittest and the wealthiest survive, the weak

and the poor perish, and government action is unable to alter this

“natural” and beneficial process.

Responses to Poverty and Wealth (cont’d)

Horatio Alger Stories

A series of best-selling tales about young rags-to-riches heroes first

published in 1867 stressing the importance of neat clothes,

cleanliness, thrift, and hard work. The books also highlighted the

importance of chance in getting ahead and the responsibility of those

better off to serve as positive role models.

Workers Organize

Economic cycles combined with the growing power of

industrial corporations and the decreasing power of

workers created social tensions.

The Great Uprising of 1877 was a railroad strike notable for

the way workers cooperated with one another.

Workers Organize (cont'd)

The Knights of Labor was founded in 1869 and led the

movement for an eight-hour day but employers responded

with court orders and arrests.

The American Federation of Labor became the major union

for skilled workers and stressed collective bargaining.

Workers Organize (cont'd)

Violent strikes at Homestead and Pullman were major

setbacks for unions. Immigrants also weakened labor

radicalism.

Workers Organize (cont'd)

Molly Maguires

Secret labor organization of mostly Irish miners in the Pennsylvania

anthracite coal region in the decade after the Civil War. Named after a

woman who led a massive protest against landlords in Ireland in the

1840s, the Maguires carried out selective murders of coal company

officials until an infiltrator exposed the group in 1877 and its leaders

were arrested, tried, and executed.

Workers Organize (cont'd)

Great Uprising

Unsuccessful railroad strike of 1877 to protest wage cuts and the use of

federal troops against strikers; the first nationwide work stoppage in

American history.

Knights of Labor

Labor union that included skilled and unskilled workers irrespective of

race or gender; founded in 1869, peaked in the 1880s, and declined

when its advocacy of the eight-hour workday led to violent strikes in

1886.

Workers Organize (cont'd)

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Union formed in 1886 that organized skilled workers along craft lines and

emphasized a few workplace issues rather than a broad social

program.

Collective bargaining

Representatives of a union negotiating with management on behalf of all

members.

Workers Organize

New Immigrants

New Immigrants

The late nineteenth century was a period of unprecedented

worldwide population movements. Between 1870 and

1910, the U.S. received more than 20 million immigrants.

MAP 18–1 Patterns of Immigration, 1820–1914

FIGURE 18–2 Immigration to the United States,

1870–1915

Old World Backgrounds

Economic hardship and religious persecution triggered

migration from central and southern Europe.

Economic hardship prompted Chinese immigration while a

land shortage drove Japanese immigration.

Initially most immigrants were young men but by 1900 the

number of women immigrants equaled men.

Old World Backgrounds (cont’d)

Chain migration involved the migration of an entire village

that followed a small number of early migrants to a

location.

Pogroms

Government-directed attacks against Jewish citizens, property, and

villages in tsarist Russia beginning in the 1880s; a primary reason for

Russian Jewish migration to the United States.

Old World Backgrounds (cont’d)

Chain migration

Process common to many immigrant groups whereby one family

member brings over other family members, who in turn bring other

relatives and friends and occasionally entire villages.

Cultural Connections in a New World

Immigrants maintained their cultural traditions through the

establishment of religious and communal institutions.

These institutions reinforced Old World culture but informed

immigrants about American ways and encouraged

assimilation into American society.

The Job

Immigrants perceived the job as a way to independence.

Typically, immigrants received their first job with the help

of a countryman.

Skills, the local economy, and local discrimination often

determined the type of work available.

The Job (cont’d)

Stereotypes also channeled immigrants into certain jobs

and industries.

The goal of most immigrants was to work for themselves.

Nativism

Antiforeign sentiment resurfaced when immigration swelled

after the Civil War.

Post-Civil War nativism targeted southern and eastern

European Catholics and Jews and had a pseudoscientific

underpinning.

Nativism stimulated proposals to restrict immigration,

leading to bans on Asian citizenship and the Chinese

Exclusion Act of 1882.

Nativism (cont'd)

Immigrants fought attempts to restrict immigration.

The immigrant experience of the late 1800s and early

twentieth century involved a process of adjustment

between the old and new.

Nativist/Nativism

Favoring the interests and culture of native-born inhabitants over those

of immigrants.

Roots of the Great Migration

Between 1880 and 1900, African Americans began moving

into the industrial cities of the Northeast and Midwest.

Economic promise and appeals of black Northerners

combined with increasing persecution in the South,

stimulated African American migration north.

Roots of the Great Migration (cont’d)

Immigrants took over many traditional black jobs. Black

women had few job options outside of domestic service.

African American migrants were restricted to segregated

urban ghettos.

Roots of the Great Migration (cont’d)

Great Migration

The mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the

urban North, spurred especially by new job opportunities during World

War I and the 1920s.

New Cities

New Cities

Despite the hardship associated with urban life, the

American city was a magnet for immigration from abroad

and migration from rural areas.

Distinctive urban systems began to emerge in cities across

the nation, while urban growth highlighted the growing

divisions in American society.

MAP 18–2 The Growth of American Cities, 1880–

1900

Centers and Suburbs

Downtowns extended up and out pushing residential

neighborhoods out and leaving the center dominated by

corporate headquarters and retail and entertainment

districts.

The residential neighborhood emerged as homes were

crowded out of the city center. Advances in rapid transit

technology eased commuting for workers.

Centers and Suburbs (cont'd)

Suburbs became the preferred residence of the urban

middle class after 1870. Privacy, aesthetics, and home

ownership stimulated suburban growth.

The New Middle Class

The traditional urban middle class included professionals,

doctors, lawyers, educators, editors, and ministers, as

well as merchants and shopkeepers. Artisans had

dropped out in the late 1800s.

The New Middle Class (cont’d)

The new urban middle class expanded to include

salespeople, factory supervisors, managers, civil

servants, technicians, and white collar office workers

performing various jobs.

The wealthier members of the new middle class lived in the

suburbs.

A Consumer Society

The new middle class changed American into a consumer

society and goods became a symbol of prestige.

Technology stimulated numerous household appliances and

new products eased food preparation.

Advertising created demand and helped develop loyalty for

brand-name products.

A Consumer Society (cont'd)

The department store was a middle-class retail

establishment that became a center of urban downtowns

after 1890.

The Growth of Leisure Activities

Leisure and recreation both separated and cut across social

class divisions.

College football was popular among the elite, but baseball

was the spectator sport of the middle class, which took it

over after the Civil War.

The tavern was the workingman’s club.

Amusement parks were another hallmark of the industrial

city.

The Ideal City

For all its problems, the American city was the locus of the

nation’s energy, generating a sense of limitless possibility

and innovation exemplified by urban skylines.

Conclusion

Conclusion

The United States changed in the late 19th century as

industrialization and urbanization proceeded at a rapid

pace.

Immigrants came to America to realize dreams of freedom

and did so to some degree, but many also experienced

the dark side of American life.

Conclusion (cont'd)

A variety of organizations and institutions had emerged to

address the worst abuses of the new urban, industrial

order.