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)