Industrialization
Westward Movement
Setting: The Great Plains
• Grassland extending
through west-central
portion of the US
• In 1860s, the Great
Plains was mostly
inhabited by a variety
of native tribes
– CONFLICTS!
Cattle becomes big business
• Railroads reached the Great Plains at the same
time that demand for beef increased in
eastern cities
• COWBOY- herder of cattle on the Great Plains
who could round-up, rope, brand, and care for
cattle during long cattle drives in the American
West
Cowboys and Cattle Drives
• Long Drives- transporting of cattle over
unfenced grazing lands between railroad
centers on the Great Plains
– Texas cattlemen made the trip up the Chisholm
Trail where they could ship their cattle from the
first stockyards in Abilene, Kansas
American Cowboys
• Cowboys, many of whom were former
Confederate soldiers, African Americans and
Mexicans, received about a dollar a day for their
dangerous work
• The cowboy’s relative isolation and work
environment contributed to the development of
a distinct cowboy culture, based on the frontier
values of the American West:
– self-reliance and individualism with a healthy dose of
the blues. Cowboy poetry and songs soothed the
cattle on long drives, as well as provided
entertainment for lonely cowboys on the road
Home on the Range
Stop and Think!!
• How did the ordinary cowboy’s life compare
to the popular conception of it?
Settlers Move West
• Railroads become important to opening
western lands for settlers and transporting
crops east
– Transcontinental Railroad (1869)- linked eastern
and western markets and lead to increased
settlement from Mississippi River west to Pacific
Ocean
Homestead Act 1862
• Offered 160 acres of land in the West (FOR
FREE) to anyone who would settle and farm
the land for 5 years
– 600,000 families took advantage of this offer
– Many were southerners-both white and AfricanAmericans
• Impact?
Boomer Sooners
• Oklahoma Land Rush- (1889)- land hungry
settlers raced to claim lands in a massive land
rush- people who left too early= Sooners
Challenges of the Plains
• Severe hardship of
droughts, fires, blizzards,
locust plagues, and native
conflict all had to be faced
by homesteaders
• Early homesteaders built
their homes out of sod
bricks or dug their home
into the sides of ravines or
small hills
Stop and Think!
• In what ways did government policies
encourage settlement of the west?
• What hardships did farmers face in the late
1800s?
New technologies
• Wheat withstood drought better than any
other crop
• Steel-tipped plow- invented by John Deere,
helped farmers slice through heavy soil
• Mechanical reaper- Cyrus McCormickincreased speed of harvesting wheat
• Barbed wire- prevented animals from
trampling crops or wandering off
Agricultural Education
• Morrill Act (1862)- federal government gave
land to states to build agricultural schools (ex:
Virginia Tech)
Impact on Native Americans
• 2/3 of Western tribal groups lived in the
Great Plains including the Sioux, Cheyenne,
Blackfoot and Comanche
• Tribes developed lives that were distinctly
tied to the open prairies of the Great Plains
• As the frontier was taken over by white
settlers, their land and freedom to live
according to their traditions would be lost.
Natives and the Buffalo
• With introduction of the
horse in 1598, most native
tribes abandoned farming
villages and roam plains
and hunt buffalo (nomadic)
• Buffalo provided tribes
with most of its basic
needs: shelter, clothing,
food, tools, toys, etc.
• Buffalo also held spiritual
significance
Political Agreements with Natives are
Restricted
• 1834, the federal gov’t passed an act that designated the entire
Great Plains as one enormous reservation set aside for Native
American tribes
• With the increasing amounts of white settlers coming during
Gold Rush and Homestead Act the gov’t attempted to create
definitive boundaries for each tribe
– Native groups refused to sign these agreements
• Thousands of miners, cattlemen, and homesteaders began to
settle on native land creating conflict and resulting in inevitable
warfare
Stop and Think!
• How did the government attempt to deal with
the growing conflict between Native
Americans and white settlers?
Sioux Wars against US Government
• Conflict arises out of Sioux and other tribes
refusal to lived restricted life on
reservations
We have been taught to hunt and live on
game. You tell us that we must learn to
farm, live in one house, and take on your
ways. Suppose the people living beyond
the great sea should come and tell you
that you must stop farming, kill your
cattle, and take your houses and lands,
what would you do? Would you not fight
them?
Custer’s Last Stand
• After gold is discovered, people start flooding Montana,
angering natives
– Natives begin attacking military units in the area
• George Armstrong Custer is sent to investigate the situation and
are promptly defeated at the Battle of Little Bighorn
• Nation angered by loss, wants revenge and army is sent to lead
continual raids on native villages until Sitting Bull is forced to
surrender to prevent his people’s starvation
Debate over Native Treatment
• Some citizens were angered over treatment of
Native Americans
• Helen Hunt Jackson writes a book in 1881,
Century of Dishonor which exposes many of
broken promises to Natives
• “Supporters” of Native Americans begin
promoting assimilation, a process that would
force natives to give up their culture and
become part of white culture
Dawes Act
• Policy passed in 1887 with hopes of “civilizing” the Native
Americans
• Plan broke up reservations in 160 acre plots or less
– US citizenship would be granted to those who stayed
on land for 25 years and “adopted the habits of
civilized life”
• 47 million acres were distributed to Native Americans
– 90 million acres that was often the best land was
distributed to white settlers or businessmen
Failure of the Dawes Act
• After being “educated”, children returned to reservations
where skills were useless
• Often caught in conflict between values of parents and
values of teachers
– Became outsiders on reservations
• Still faced with discrimination in white world with
“education”
• By the turn of the century, disease and poverty reduced
population to 200,000
Industrialization
Industry, big business and labor
America Becomes an
• By 1900, the United States
Industrial
Giant
emerged as the leading
industrial power in the
world
• Its manufacturing output
exceeded that of its 3
largest rivals: Great
Britain, France & Germany
Factors that influenced
industrialization
• Lots of natural resources: coal, iron ore, copper, lead, timber
and oil
• Abundant labor supply due to immigration
• Advanced transportation network creates huge market for
industrial goods
• Development of innovations, laborsaving technologies, and
talented entrepreneurs
• Friendly government policies:
– Laissez-faire (hands off) capitalism
– Entrepreneurs received special favors from Congress to create new
business
Major Innovations
• Edwin Drake: Successfully uses steam engine to drill for oil
in Pennsylvania making it practical
• Bessemer Process: process by which air is injected into
molten iron, which removed carbon and creates steel.
– Steel is better product than iron since it is lighter, more flexible, and
rust-resistant
– Steel would be used to create railroads, barbed wire enormous
bridges skyscrapers, etc.
Major Innovations Cont.
• Thomas Edison established the first
research laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ
• Edison invents the light bulb and a system
for distributing electrical power which
completely changed society
• Electric power began being used in
businesses, in homes, transportations, and
spurred numerous inventions of appliances
• Manufacturers could put their plants
wherever they want
• Workers could work longer hours
Major Innovations Cont.
• Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson
invent the telephone
– Laid groundwork for worldwide communications
network
• Assembly-Line Manufacturing- Henry Ford- broke
industrial tasks down into simpler parts and
improved efficiency in production of cars
• Other inventions: refrigerated railroad cars,
typewriter, sewing machine, phonograph, motion
pictures, dynamite, radio
Women in the Workplace
• The inventions of the typewriter and
telephone created new jobs for women
– By 1910 women accounted for nearly 40% of
the clerical workforce
• Before industrialization, women sewed
clothing by hand for their families
– After industrialization clothing could be massproduced in factories creating garment workers
which were mainly women
First Big Business:
Railroads
• Railroad mileage increased from 35,000 in 1865 to 193,000 in
1900
• Early Railroads were often incompatible with each other
• Cornelius Vanderbilt merged local railroads to create a unified
system running from east to midwest.
• West coast railroads would complete various transcontinental
railroads which connected coast to coast
• Government provided railroads with huge land grants and
loans to build tracks (3x as much as Homestead Act)
• Gov’t assistance led to some corruption as companies like
Credit Mobilier were formed to pocket gov’t money w/help of
gov’t assistance
• Vice President Colfax (under Grant) and Congressmen Garfield
both profited from scheme
Railroads and Government
Abuses of Railroads
• Railroads would sell land grants to other
businesses rather than settlers
• Charged different customers different rates,
more if no alternative carrier, which caused
many farmers to go into debt
• Formed pools to fix prices
Rise of Steel Industry
• Andrew Carnegie: industrial mogul, was a true
rags to riches story
• Started in railroad business and eventually
becomes leading steel producer
• Pioneered many different management
techniques and business strategies
Business Strategies of Carnegie
• Vertical Integration: controlling all aspects of
the production process of your product
– Carnegie controlled everything from coal and iron
mines, railroad lines, and every stage of
manufacturing process
• Horizontal Integration: process by which
companies producing similar products merge
thus eliminating any competition
– Carnegie nearly monopolized (complete control
over an industry) steel industry
• By 1901 when he sold Carnegie company he was
producing 80% of nation’s steel
Stop and Think
• In your own words describe the difference
between Vertical and Horizontal Integration
J.P. Morgan Consolidates Steel
Industry
• J.P. Morgan, a banker, set up holding company (corporation
that does nothing but buy out stocks of other companies)
• In 1901, he buys out Carnegie for $500 million, takes virtual
control of all steel industry
• J.P. Morgan renames Carnegie company U.S. Steel, which
becomes the 1st billion dollar corporation and largest
corporation in the world
– Employed 168,000 people
The Oil Industry
• John D. Rockefeller forms the Standard Oil
Company of Ohio in 1870, which controlled
3% of crude oil
• Within 1 decade, Standard Oil would control
90% of the refining business
Rockefeller’s Tactics
• Rockefeller forms trusts, companies that turn over their stock
to a group of trustees who runs a separate company as one
corporation, to gain control of oil business
• Paid his workers extremely low wages and drove his
competition out of business by selling oil at a lower cost than
it cost to produce, then hiking the prices after competition
went under
Robber Barons
• Critics name for rich industrialist business
tactics
• Sherman Antitrust Act: out of fear corporations were stifling
free competition
Gov’t stand against Monopolies
– Gov’t stated interfering with free trade or forming trusts was illegal
• In reality, enforcement was nearly impossible in the 1890s
– Businesses turned into single corporation of troubled and Supreme
Court refused to support the act helping consolidation of business
continue
Stop and Think
• How were businessmen like Carnegie and
Rockefeller successful?
Working Conditions
• By 1900, 2/3 of Americans worked for wages
– Average man in 1899 made $498 a year
(Carnegie made $23 million)
• Employees were expected to work at least 6 days a week, 12
hrs a day in most industries
• Employees not entitled to any vacation, sick leave,
unemployment compensation, or reimbursement for injuries
suffered on job
• Injuries were common!
• Factories were dirty, poorly ventilated and poorly lit
– Workers had to perform repetitive, mind dulling
tasks often with dangerous and faulty equipment
Child and Women Labor
• Since a family couldn’t survive on 1 wage,
many children and mothers joined the
factory labor force
• 20% of women, 20% of boys and 15% of girls
under age 15 held full time jobs
• Jobs for women and children’s work required
least skill and paid lowest wages
– Often as little as 27 cents for a child’s 14 hr day
Stop and Think!!
• What conditions did many factory workers
face in the late 19th century?
Labor Unions Emerge
• Knights of Labor (1869)- founded by Uriah
Stephens
– Open to all workers regardless of skill level, race or
gender
– Supported 8 hr work day
• American Federation of Labor (AFL)-founded
by Samuel Gompers-1886
– Open to SKILLED WORKERS ONLY
– Favored collective bargaining- negotiation between
management and representatives of labor to reach
an agreement
Labor Unions Continued
• American Railway Union (ARU)- founded by
Eugene Debs (socialist)
– Open to all workers within the railroad industry
regardless of skill level
– Used strikes when necessary- Pullman Strike
• International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Unionfounded by Pauline Newman
– Labor union devoted to female worker in textile
industry
– Used strikes when necessary
– Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire- NYC-1911- 146
Strikes Turn Violent
• Haymarket Square- Chicago 1886
– Bomb exploded in a crowd of policemen, police
fired into strikers
– Public started to turn against labor unions
• Homestead Strike- near Pittsburgh 1892
– Carnegie Steel plant went on strike when wages
were cut
– Violence broke out- PA National Guard called in to
break up the strike
Strikes
• Pullman Strike- Chicago 1894
– Pullman employees went on strike after wages
were cut
– Violence breaks out- US Army sent in by Pres.
Cleveland
• Overall significance of strikes- Violence caused
the public to turn against labor unions
Industrialization
Immigration and Urbanization
Massive Immigration
• Between 1870 and 1920, 21 million immigrants arrived in the
US
• Prior to 1890 most immigrants came from Western and
Northern Europe
– Germany, Great Britain, Ireland and Sweden
• Beginning in 1890, immigrants began coming to America from
Eastern and Southern Europe as well as Asia
– Italy, Greece, Poland, Russia, China and Japan
Old v. New Immigration
Old:
• Western Europe
• Protestant Religions
• Spoke English
• High literacy rate
• Skilled and able to blend in
well
New:
• Southern and Eastern Europe
• Catholic and Jewish
• Very poor
• Illiterate
• Unskilled and unaccustomed to
democratic principles
Reasons for Immigration
Push Factors:
• Religious and Political
Persecution
• Agricultural Poverty
• Relaxation of Immigrant
laws
Pull Factors:
• Promise of freedom and
hope
• Network of family and
friends in US
• Need for recruitment of
cheap labor
There are no cats in America!!
Stop and Think!
• What is the difference between old and new
immigrants?
• For what reasons did they come to the United
States
Ellis Island
• After grueling week long journeys on the
Atlantic, European immigrants arrived at Ellis
Island in New York Harbor
• Immigrants were processed at Ellis Island and
given medical exams, Literacy tests, checked
to make sure they had the proper
requirements to enter the US along with at
least $25
Angel Island
• After 3 week journey on the Pacific, most Asians (mainly
Chinese) gained admission to the US at Angel Island in San
Francisco Bay
• Procedures for admission at Angel Island were much harsher
than Ellis
• Asian immigrants were often questioned for long periods and
detained in filthy, prison-like conditions while gov’t officials
decided whether to admit them into the US
Culture Shock and Ethnic
Communities
• Upon entering a completely new country,
most immigrants went through a period of
intense anxiety as they tried to find a new
home and way of life
• Many immigrant groups settled in ethnic
communities made up of people from their
same country
– Built churches and synagogues
– Formed social clubs and cemeteries
– Published newspapers in their own language
Melting Pot?
• Melting pot: mixture of different cultures and races blending
together and abandoning native customs and language
• Many native-born Americans began to resent new immigrants
who held on to their native languages and customs
– Led to the formation of nativist (anti-immigrant) groups
• “Good” traditional countries (British, German) we welcomed
while “bad” countries were shunned (Slav, Latin, Asiatic)
Anti- Asian Sentiment
• Anti-Asian sentiment especially in the West
– Losing jobs to Asian immigrants
• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: banned Chinese immigration
• Gentleman’s Agreement of 1907-1908: in exchange for
segregation of Asians in California, Japan made an agreement
with Roosevelt to limit immigration from Japan
Stop and Think!
• How did immigrants cope after arriving in
America?
• What troubles did they face?
Urbanization
• Urbanization: growth of cities, mostly in Northeast and
Midwest
• By 1910, immigrants made up ½ of the population of 18
major cities
• Farming technology’s improvement meant less labor was
needed so many farmers also began moving to the cities
for economic opportunities
• 200,000 African-Americans also moved north and west to
cities between 1890-1910
– Moved to Chicago and Detroit to escape racial violence, economic
hardship and political oppression
– Conditions were only somewhat better than those in the South
• Segregation and discrimination
Urban Problems: Housing
• As urban population increased a new type of
housing emerged
• Row-houses: single-family dwellings that
shared side walls w/other similar houses
– Many families in 1
– Tenements: multifamily urban dwellings
Urban Problems: Transportation
• Mass transit: transportation system designed to move large
numbers of people along fixed routes
– Enabled workers to go to and from work more easily
• Streetcars were introduced in San Francisco in 1873
• Electric subway in Boston 1897
• Linked city neighborhoods and outlaying communities
Urban Problems: Water
• As urban population grew in 1840s and 1850s cities like NY
and Cleveland built public waterworks to handle the demand
for safe drinking water
• Homes rarely had indoor plumbing, and residents collected
water in pails from faucets on the street
• Disease like cholera and typhoid fever spread
– Filtration and chlorination were introduced to solve problems
Urban Problems: Sanitation
• As cities grew it was harder to keep them clean
• Horse manure piled up on streets, sewage flowed through
open gutters and factories spewed foul smoke in the air
• No trash collection so people dumped their trash on the
streets
• By 1900 many cities had developed sewer lines and created
sanitation departments
Urban Problems: Crime
• Pickpockets and thieves flourished as
population increased
• New York City organized the first full-time,
salaried police force in 1844
• Most other city law enforcement units were
too small to have an impact
Urban Problems: Fire
• Limited water supply contributed to the
spread of fire
• Most cities were packed with wooden
dwellings
• The use of candles and kerosene heaters
posed a fire hazard
Stop and Think!
• What major problems did immigrants and
poor people living in the cities face?
Settlement House Movement
• An early reform program, the Social Gospel movement
preached salvation through service to the poor
• Settlement houses were established
– Community centers in slum neighborhoods that provided assistance to
people in the area
• Jane Addams- influential member of the movement- Hull
House
Political Machines emerge
• Cities experienced rapid growth under
inefficient gov’ts in the late 19th century
• Climate was supported by dog-eat-dog Social
Darwinism
• New political structure emerged, the “political
machine” with a new politician, the “city
boss”
Political Machines
• An organization that controlled the activities
of a political party in a city
• Offered services to voters and businesses in
exchange for political or financial support
• Political machines gained control of local gov’t
in Baltimore, New York, San Francisco and
other major cities
Organization
• Organized like a pyramid
• At the base were local precinct workers and captains
– Tried to gain voters’ support on a city block or in a neighborhood-they
reported to the ward boss
• Ward bosses were in the middle
– At election time, the ward boss helped the poor and gained their votes by
doing favors
• At the top of the pyramid was the city boss
– Controlled the activities of the political party throughout the city
• Precinct captains, ward bosses and city bosses worked together to
elect their candidate and guarantee the success of the machine
• The city boss controlled access to municipal jobs and business
license, they influenced the courts and other agencies
• Used their power to build parks, sewer systems, waterworks,
gave money to schools, hospitals, and orphanages
• Also provided gov’t support for new businesses
• By solving urban problems, bosses could reinforce voters’
loyalty and extend their influence
The Role of the Political Boss
Role of Immigrants
• Many precinct captains and political bosses were 1st
generation or 2nd generation immigrants
– They enter politics early and worked their way up
• They could speak to immigrants in their own language and
understood the challenges that newcomers faced
• Machines helped immigrants with naturalization (attaining
full citizenship), housing, and jobs
• In return, immigrants provided votes
Corruption among Bosses
• when loyalty votes weren't enough to carry an election, some
political machines turned to fraud
– Using fake names to cast as many votes as needed to win
• Once the candidate was in office it could take advantage of the
opportunities for graft (the illegal use of political influence for
personal gain)
– Example: by helping a person find work on a contstruction project a
political machine could ask the worker to bill the city for more than the
actual cost of material and labor. The work then “kicked back” a portion
of the earnings. Taking the kickbacks, or illegal payments for services,
enriched the machines
• Machines also granted favors to businesses in return for cash and
accepted bribes to allow illegal activities like gambling
Tweed Ring Scandal
• William M. Tweed, known as “Boss Tweed” became head of the
Tammany Hall, NYC’s powerful Democratic political machine in
1868
– Between 1869-1871, Boss Tweed led the Tweed Ring, a group of corrupt
politicians in defrauding the city
• NY County Courthouse construction cost $3 million but cost
taxpayers $13 million-the difference went to Tweed and followers
• Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist, helped arouse public outrage
against Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed
– The ring was broken in 1871 and Tweed was indicted on 120 counts of fraud
and extortion and sentenced to 12 years
Industrialization
Segregation, Discrimination and
Progressivism
Life after Reconstruction
• During Reconstruction (_____to _____),
African Americans saw the greatest amount
of freedom
– More in 1868 than 1968
• Once Reconstruction ended and the
Southern Democrats redeemed their
leadership positions, segregation and
discrimination intensified and took new
Violence
• Violent groups rose to take out the frustration
of many southerners (KKK)
• Tactics include: burning property,
beatings/whippings, murder by
lynching
The fight against Legal Discrimination
• African Americans faced violent opposition to
their new constitutional rights, especially voting
• Restrictions on voting- in ALL southern states
– Literacy Tests- difficult reading test given to AfricanAmericans trying to vote
– Poll tax- annual tax that had to be paid by African
Americans before voting
– Grandfather Clause- state laws that allowed people to
vote if their grandfather was eligible to vote in 1867
• Resulted in disqualification of African American voters
Segregation Laws
• Jim Crow Laws- passed throughout the South to
separate white and black people in public places
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)- U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that segregation of races in public
accommodations was legal- didn’t violate 14th
Amendment
– Established “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL
DOCTRINE”*****
• States could maintain segregated facilities for blacks and
whites as long as they provided equal services
– Segregation was legal for almost 60 years
African American Responses
• “Great Migration” (early 20th century)movement of African Americans from the
rural South to Northern cities in search of jobs
and to escape poverty and discrimination
– Still existed in the north
Early Civil Rights Leaders
• Ida B. Wells- led an anti-lynching crusade and
called for the federal government to act to stop
oppression of African Americans
• Booker T. Washington- believed the way to
equality was through vocational education and
economics success
– Didn’t openly challenge segregation
– FOUNDED THE TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE in AL
• W.E.B. Du Bois- believed that education was
meaningless w/o equality
– Supported political equality by helping to form the
Progressive Era
• Political economic and social change in late
19th century America lead to broad
progressive reforms
Urbanization in the Gilded Age
• Cities grew rapidly (ex: Chicago, Detroit,
Cleveland, Pittsburgh, NYC)
– Were the centers for manufacturing and
transportation
– Harsh conditions for laborers in slums and
tenements
– Need for better public services
Progressivism
• Middle- Class progressive reformers wanted to
fix many of the problems that resulted from
industrialization and urbanization in the late
19th century (Gilded Age)
– Working conditions
– Dominance of big business
– Government not responsive to needs of the people
• Progressive movement- use of gov’t to reform
problems created by industrialization and
correct injustices in American society
Progressive Goals
• Government controlled by the people
• Guarantee economic opportunities through
government regulations
• Eliminate social injustices
Social Reforms
• Prohibition- movement to ban the
manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol
– Based on the belief that alcohol consumption was
undermining American morality
– 18th Amendment- prohibition of alcohol went into
effect
Social Reforms
• Women’s Suffrage- the movement to give
women the right to vote
– National American Woman Suffrage Association
(NAWSA)
• Benefited from strong leadership- Susan B. Anthony
• Encouraged women to enter the workforce during WWI
– 19th Amendment- granted women the right to
vote (suffrage)
Economic Reforms
• During the Gilded Age govt took a hands off
approach to economy and didn’t get involved
in regulating business= LAISSEZ-FAIRE
CAPITALISM
– Big business used power to crush competition
Economic reforms
• Muckrakers- journalists who wrote about the
corrupt side of business and public life in
magazines
– Ida Tarbell- “History of Standard Oil Company”attacked Rockefeller
– Upton Sinclair- The Jungle- exposed horrible
conditions of the meatpacking industry in Chicago
• Clayton Anti-Trust Act- strengthened Sherman
Anti Trust act
– Outlawed trusts, monopolies and price fixing
– Exempted unions from being prosecuted by Sherman
A-T Act
Political Reform- Local Gov’ts
• Need to reform city gov’t with major problems
that resulted from urbanization
– Combat the City Boss and political machine
• Commissioners and city council managersnew ways to govern cities more efficiently in
250 cities in US
Political Reforms – State gov’t
• Secret Ballots- allowed voters to cast a vote without
election officials knowing who they voted for
• Initiative- a bill originated by the people rather than
lawmakers on the ballot
• Referendum- a vote by the people on a bill that
began as an initiative
• Recall- enabled voters to remove public officials
from elected positions by forcing them to face
another election before the end of their term
• Primary system- voters, rather than politicians
choose candidates
Political Reforms- national government
• President Teddy Roosevelt’s progressive plan=
“Square Deal”
– Involved trust busing and conservation projects
• President Woodrow Wilson’s plan= “New Freedom”
– Involved financial reform, increased gov’t regulation of
business
• Child Labor- progressives wanted to end use of
children in industry
– Keating-Owen Act (1916)- outlawed goods being
transported from state to state if those products were
produced by child labor
• Later unconstitutional
Progressive Amendments
• 16th- established a federal income tax
• 17- direct election of senators
– People, no legislatures, vote on candidates
running for the US Senate
• 18th- prohibition on manufacture, sale and
consumption of alcohol
• 19th amendment- women right to vote
Industrialization
Life at the Turn of the 20th Century
Technology and City Life
• A variety of improvements were made for urban cities which
changed their internal structure and design
– Street-car cities: walking cities gave way to cities where people lived
many miles away and commuted to work
• Electric trolleys, elevated railroads, and subways
– Steel Suspension bridges: made longer commutes possible
• Brooklyn Bridge
– Skyscrapers: in 1890, Louis Sullivan designed the first steel, tall
building of its kind which became common throughout urban areas
•
Residential Suburbs/ Urban
Planning
Improvements in inexpensive transportation, cheap land and
wooden housing led to an American fondness of privacy
– Wealthiest people began to move to areas outside of the central city
called suburbs
• Urban planners like Frederick Law Olmsted looked to bring
“naturalness” into cities by building parks within cities
– Central Park in NYC and the grounds of the U.S. capitol in D.C
New Technologies
• Orville and Wilbur Wright: create first successful flight at
Kitty Hawk, NC in 1903
• Web- Perfecting Press: made printing productions faster and
cheaper which made newspapers and magazines more
widely available to people
• George Eastman: invents Kodak cameras which makes
photography available to the masses and created the field
of photojournalism
• Automobile: Henry Ford and the model-T (assembly line)
Changes in Public Education
• After drastic increase in compulsory schooling starting in
1865, ¾ of children 9-14 were attending school
• Curriculum focused on the 3 R’s: reading, writing, arithmetic
• Growth of High Schools expanded curriculum to include
science, literature, history, civics, economics, etc.
Increase in Higher Education
• Between 1880 and 1900 more than 150 new
colleges are formed and enrollments soon
quadrupled
• Industrial Development also led to expansion
of curriculum in colleges to include variety of
area of study
– Medicine, engineering, physical science, sociology
and psychology
Stop and Think!
• What changes did many universities make in
their curriculum and why?
Dawn of Mass Culture
• Increase in communication brings popular culture to
America:
– Spectator sports: baseball and boxing became national interests
– Amusement parks spring up in major cities to meet need for
recreation
– Boardwalks and residential resorts
• Coney Island, NY, Asbury Park, NJ
– Amateur sports like bicycling, tennis, and croquet become major
leisure activity for men and women
– Realism and naturalism: focus on reality and emotions becomes
dominant literary and art movements
Dawn of Mass Culture cont.
• A variety of live performances also attract large
audiences:
– Barnum and Bailey Circus
– Vaudeville performances: song, dance, comedy,
variety shows
– Music: coming mostly out of the experiences of
African-Americans, blues, ragtime, and jazz
performances begin to blend African rhythms and
spirituals with western instruments
– Motion pictures began early production
Dawn of Mass Culture cont.
• By the turn of the century, newspapers began to
be mass circulated and focused on sensational
headlines and stories to keep their audience
• Joseph Pulitzer publisher of NY World and William
Randolph Hearst publisher of the New York
Morning Journal and San Francisco Examiner were
leaders of journalists which focused on most
sensational stories like scandals, cruelty, sin, etc. to
sell papers
Dawn of Mass Culture cont.
• Period also marked the birth of consumerism and modern
advertising
• In 1890’s shopping became a past time and America saw the
development of department stores, chain stores, and mailorder catalogs which brought merchandise to small towns
– Sears and Roebuck and Montgomery Ward
• By 1900, $95 million was spend on advertising in newspapers,
billboards, magazines, etc.