The Emergence of Urban America*

 

I.  You should be able to identify and explain the historical significance of the following:

  1. Jane Addams

  2. Florence Kelley

  3. Mary Baker Eddy

  4. Charles Darwin

  5. Booker T. Washington

  6. W.E.B. DuBois

  7. William James

  8. Henry George

  9. Horatio Alger

  10. Mark Twain

  11. Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  12. Carrie Chapman Catt

  13. Louis Sullivan 

  14. Frederick Law Olmstead 

  15. "streetcar suburbs" 

  16. dumbbell tenements 

  17. the "new" immigration 

  18. American Protective Association 

  19. Morrill Act of 1862 

  20. Johns Hopkins University 

  21. professionalism 

  22. Social Darwinism 

  23. William Graham Sumner 

  24. Lester Frank Ward 

  25. scientific" history 

  26. pragmatism 

  27. John Dewey 

  28. local-color movement 

  29. Henry James 

  30. naturalism 

  31. Henry George 

  32. Edward Bellamy 

  33. Social Gospel 

  34. settlement houses 

  35. Susan B. Anthony 

  36. due process

  37. Thomas Nast

  38. Tammany Hall

II.  You should be able to define and state the historical significance of the following:

 

  1. Megalopolis

  2. ethnicity

  3. nativism

  4. evolution

  5. philanthropy

  6. pragmatism

  7. yellow  journalism

III.  You should be able to describe and state the historical significance of the following:

  1. New Immigration

  2. American Protective Association

  3. Modernist

  4. Chautauqua movement

  5. Morrill Act

  6. Comstock Law

  7. Machine Politics

  8. Tammany Hall

IV.  Discussion Questions:

  1. Who peopled the growing U.S. cities and why did they move there? 

  2. .What were the new problems found in urban areas, and how did politicians and reformers try to deal with them? 

  3. .Compare the policies of social Darwinism and reform Darwinism regarding such public issues as public education and regulation of business. 

  4. What was the settlement-house movement and what were its effects?

  5. How did "realism" affect learning and literature?

  6. The arrival of immigrants on American shores in the late nineteenth century involved both "push" and "pull" factors.  Describe the major motives that caused emigrants to leave Europe and come to the United States during this period.

  7. Fear of newly arriving immigrants has been a constant in American history.  With respect to the New Immigrants of the late nineteenth century, describe what the native-born Americans were concerned about.  Do you think their fears were fell founded?  Why or why not?

  8. Do you think that the United States needed laws restricting immigration in the nineteenth century?  List the kinds of restrictions actually imposed and state whether you agree with each restriction.  Why or why not?

  9. Cite at least one figure in each of the following categories and describe the major theme of his or her work.  Then tell why you think your choice reflects the reality of life in the late nineteenth century in each case: (a) journalism and popular writing, (b) serious novels and poetry, (c) sculpture and architecture.

  10. What was the impact of industrialization and urbanization on late-nineteen-century American churches, schools, and family life?  Cite at least two charges wrought on each of these institutions during this period.

  11. Bailey alleges that "women were growing more independent in the urban environment of the cities" in the late nineteenth century.  What did the city environment have to do with women's liberation, and what forms did their new independence take?

  12. Explain the statement that the late nineteenth-century cities "grew up, out, and apart."  Had you been alive at the time, what might have attracted you to the city?  What might have caused you to stay there or go back "down on the farm?"

  13. In what ways was the city a "frontier of opportunity for women?"  Name at least two women who seized this "opportunity" and elaborate on their experiences.

V.  Practice Quizzes:

   A.  From Bailey: American Pageant

   B.  From Tindall and Shi:  America

  

* Sources:

                1.  Bailey, et. al.  American Pageant

                 2. Tindall and Shi:  America, A Narrative History -Fourth Edition.