Changes in Society
Mr. Mizell
Humanities, Year II
Come in and take a look at this
fairly ordinary picture
New York City (1800)
New York City (1900)
New York City (Current)
Think-Pair-Share
What might we infer from
these three pictures
about how society
changed (use what you
currently know about the
Industrial Revolution)?
Essential Question
How did societies that
experienced the
Industrial Revolution
change?
Five Major Changes
1. Industrialization
2. Immigration
3. Urbanization
4. Social Structure
5. New Beliefs
Industrialization
Growth of industries that rely on
machinery (manufacturing: furniture,
clothes, steel, etc…)
People work 10-14 hrs for wages
England, France, Prussia, United States,
and Japan emerge as Industrial countries
Immigration
Why might people move to
the cities/industrial nations?
Better life
More freedom
Entertainment
Most important –
Jobs/wages
Ellis Island - East
Ellis Island
Inspections
Angel Island
Inspections
Treatment/Life of Immigrants
Nativism on the rise (belief that native
born people are superior to immigrants)
Discrimination
This is fueled by job and housing
competition as well as cultural differences
Most immigrants were unskilled and not
educated
Most worked in factories for small wages
and lived near them (cheaper)
The Immigrant Experience
“Well, I came to America because I heard the
streets were paved with gold. When I got
here, I found out 3 things: first, the streets
weren't paved with gold; second, they
weren't paved at all; and third, I was
expected to pave them.”
What is he really saying?
Urbanization
Expanding Cities
Urbanization
Why move to the city? What does it offer?
Businesses, restaurants, factories, theatres,
immigration, railroads
Come because it is the “place to be” –
jobs/entertainment/ opportunity
Steel – large buildings, skyscrapers,
bridges
Cheap apartments – hold lots of people
Construction of roads, transportation
Review
Industrialization
Immigration
What exactly is it?
Where did it take place?
Why come to the cities/industrial nations?
How was life for them in the cities?
Urbanization
What makes a place urban?
Continued: How did
societies that experienced
the Industrial Revolution
change?
Social Structure and Beliefs
Copy down Vocab
Plutocracy – the wealthy have power and
rule society
Realism – showing life as it is
Monopoly – when one company has total
control of a product/service
Muckraker – those who expose corruption
and social injustice
Strike – to refuse to work in order to force
an employer to meet certain demands
Social Structure
Social Structure – classes/groups of
people defined by their
job/salary/education
Pre-IR Social Structure
Nobles, Landowners
Small Middle Class
Peasants/
Farmers
Post-IR Social Structure
Upper Class
Middle Class
Lower Middle
Class
Working Class
and Farmers
Social Classes
Upper Class – Big Business Owners,
land owners
Middle Class – professionals, educated
Lower Middle Class –had a specific skill
Lawyers, teachers, doctors, factory
managers, merchants
Factory overseer, toolmakers, printers
Working Class – unskilled, worked in
factories
Mobility
Eventually, many in the upper and
middle classes move out of the
cities and to the suburbs
They can afford the transportation
Trains, Electric Trolleys
Think-Pair-Share
Is this change in social
structure good or bad?
New Beliefs
Capitalism/Laissez-Faire
Based on private ownership of
businesses
No GOVERNMENT involvement
/restrictions
Laissez-Faire – hands-off
Let businesses to what they want
Business/Industry will make society
better
Jobs – money for people
Social Darwinism
Survival of the Fittest - let
people/business who can succeed
rise to the top, forget about the
“failures”
The Govt should not get involved
(help the poor) b/c it will upset the
natural selection
Wealth is the measure of value
Think-Pair-Share
What possible pros and cons
do you see in these beliefs?
How to Improve City Life?
Main issue: population
growth
May run out of space
Transportation
Water, sewers, schools
Urban Problems
Immigrants/ poor workers need to live near
factories (cannot afford transportation)
Live in tenements
Cheap, multifamily housing
How the Other Half Lives
Jacob Riis – journalist who exposed the
slums and poverty of the cities
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the
Tenements of New York (1890)
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