Transcript The Middle Class Family

The Middle Class Family
• Less moral fervor
• Smaller families due to
late marriage and
abstinence
• Introduction of
contraceptives and
abortion
• Children treasured and
carefully supervised
• Family could afford
servants
• Family defined by
tangible goods
Skilled and Unskilled Workers
• Increased production resulted
in increased standards of living
• Shorter working hours (11 -10 8)
• Skilled workers usually well off
compared to unskilled
• Mechanization made workers
less important
• Time clock drove production
• Management became more
ruthless towards workers
• Mechanization accentuated
business cycles – emergence
of unemployment
Working Women
• More women working
outside the home
• Paid lower wages than
men
• Jobs as salespersons
and cashiers, clerks and
secretaries
• Middle-class women
nurses and teachers
• Higher wages than
unskilled factory laborers
• Little to no opportunity for
advancement
Farmers
• Urban population increasing at
faster rate than rural
• Decline in social status (hicks)
• Granger movement sought
greater protection and social &
economic experimentation
• Farms in East and Mid-West
secure versus West and South
• Crop-Lien system in South
• Harsh environment on Plains
• Life for farm women
particularly hard
Working-Class Family Life
• Standards of living
due to several factors
 Health
 Intelligence
 Wife’s ability as
homemaker
 Values
 Luck
I hate
Kids
Working-Class Attitudes
• Varied response from content to extremely
dissatisfied
• Wealth gap widening – but poor better off
as well
Working Your Way Up
• Rags to Riches – Carnegie
• The way to move up was to move on –
mobility often accompanied by economic
and social improvement
• Movement generational
• Unskilled immigrants to skilled later
generations
Working Your Way Up
• Growth of education
 Horace Mann
 By 1860’s half of all children
receiving some formal
education
 School often seasonal and
teachers untrained
 Industrialization increased
demand for educated worker
 Very few attended past 8th
grade
 Very few real rags to riches
stories
The “New” Immigration
• Pull Factors
Industrial expansion increased need for labor
and stimulated immigration
New steamships increased ability to carry
large numbers of immigrants quickly and
safely
Competition between lines brought down
prices
Family networking
The “New” Immigration
• Push factors
Industrialization and cheap products from
America and Russia helped cause collapse of
European agriculture
Political and religious persecution
Democratic institutions versus European
monarchies
The “New” Immigration
Inspecting immigrants at Ellis Island
• Most immigrants entered US
through New York
• Before 1882, immigration was
relatively unrestricted – state
governments exercised whatever
controls were present
• Only restrictions were: criminal,
mental deficiency, health risks
• Private agencies- philanthropic
and commercial- were links
between immigrants and
employers looking for labor
The “New” Immigration
• Until Foran Act 1885 outlawed the practice,
some companies recruited skilled laborers
advanced travel costs that were later recouped
from wages (quasi indentured servants)
• Nationality groups organized “immigrant banks”
that provided money for immigrants from
selected regions
• The Padrone System - supplied employers with
gangs of laborers for a lump sum
• Immigrants in late 1800’s tended to be from
Southern Europe and Russia
New Nativism
• Some new immigrants more clannish – less
willing to assimilate
• Some were sojourners and not concerned with
becoming “American”
• Most, however, eager to become Americans
• Problems adjusting due to cultural differences
• Religious differences between immigrant
religions and between immigrant-native religions
New Nativism
• Conflicts caused many natives to believe
new immigrants unable to become good
citizens
• Charities burdened by numbers of
immigrants believed immigrants too many
• Racial purists believed new immigrants
racially inferior and should be kept out
• Workers feared competition in labor
• Employers feared influx of radicals
New Nativism
• Nativism re-emerged- Grand Army of the
Republic (GAR) denounced “long-haired
radicals”
• American Protective Association 1887 –
organized against the “Catholic menace”
• Other than the Exclusion At 1882, no laws were
enacted limiting immigration
• Nativists pushed for a literacy test to restrict
immigration – bill vetoed by President Cleveland
The Expanding City
• Urban populations rising for
both native-born and
immigrants
• Ethnic neighborhoods
(comfort) and lack of
money to settle in West
resulted in large urban
immigrant concentrations
• Most immigrants became
citizens but retained
“national” ties through
newspapers, churches,
schools, and social
organizations
Little Italy – New York City
The Expanding City
• The American
“Melting Pot”
• The American
“Ghetto”
Teeming Tenements
• Growing urban
populations resulted in
suffering
• Sewer and water systems
could not keep up
• Garbage piled up faster
than it could be removed
• Fire protection was
overwhelmed
• More streets were
created than could be
paved
Teeming Tenements
• Housing could not meet
demand
• People were packed into
substandard slums with
little light and air
• Attempts at regulating
housing construction
were weak
• Jacob Riis, a reporter,
exposed the horrors of
the slums
Teeming Tenements
• Overcrowding impacted public morals
• Proliferation of gangs
• Number of prison inmates increased by 50
percent in the 1880’s
• Well-to-do residents retreated to exclusive
city sections or the suburbs
Cities Modernize
• The social problems brought about by
poor conditions in cities caused cities to
solve the underlying conditions
• When the connection between polluted
water and disease was realized, efforts
were made to create decent water and
sewage systems
• Citizens began to form public-spirited
groups to clean up their cities
Cities Modernize
• Streets were paved with
cobblestone and asphalt
• Gas and, later, electric lights
were used to light streets and cut
down on crime
• Electric trolleys replaced horsecars
• Trolley lines (streetcars)
extending into the suburbs
allowed commuters and
shoppers to access the
downtown areas
Cities Modernize
• Trolleys extended the radius of big-city life
from 2 ½ miles (walking distance) to more
than 6 miles
• Even greater population shift occurred
resulting in economic segregation
• Low fares allowed working poor to access
the countryside on holidays
Cities Modernize
• Advances in bridge design
• John Roebling – Brooklyn
Bridge
• High cost of land in cities
caused architects to build
“up”
• Introduction of ironskeleton frame allowed
taller buildings
• Louis Sullivan – new ideas
in architecture
• Introduction of words:
skyscraper and skyline
Cities Modernize
• The “White City” built for 1893 World’s Fair
led to a national “city beautiful” movement
including establishment of city parks –
Central Park leading example
• Little changes in slums despite new ideas
and technologies
Leisure
• Cities were centers of
artistic and cultural life
with museums,
symphonies, and theaters
• Saloons were the refuge
of the male working-class
• Sports became popularbicycling became a fad
• Picnic grounds and
amusement parks were
constructed at the edges
of cities
Leisure
• Spectator sports developed – large populations
needed to support them
• Wealthy and working classes mixed at horse
races and boxing matches
• Sports was a “man” thing- few women involved
as players or spectators
• Team games emerged:
 Baseball
 Football
 Basketball
Leisure
• Baseball
First emerged in 1840’s
Became popular during Civil War when
played in military camps
National League formed in 1876
American League formed in1901
First World Series in 1903
Baseball evolved- not invented
Leisure
• Football
Evolved out of English rugby
For many decades it was a game of the
privileged played at college
First inter-college game 1869
Much of modern football was work of Yale
coach Walter Camp
Leisure
• Basketball
Invented by James Naismith 1891
First basketball was a soccer ball- baskets
were peach baskets
Did not become a major spectator sport for
many decades
Christianity and Social Gospel
• Social problems of the slums still lingered
despite modernization of the cities
• Traditional churches lost influence in
poorer sections
• Protestant churches withdrew and catered
to better-off
• Poor tended to be Catholics – parishes
helped in some ways but not effective
Christianity and Social Gospel
• Christian evangelists established missions
in the slums – YMCA and Salvation Army
• Social Gospelers advocated civil service
reform, child labor legislation, regulation of
big corporations, and income taxes
• Washington Gladden
• Many Gospelers advocated socialism /
welfare states
Settlement Houses
• Community centers located in poor
districts that provided guidance and
services
• Most famous was Hull House founded by
Jane Addams in Chicago
• Most important settlement house workers
were women
• Workers advocated for labor regulation for
women and children and schools
Settlement Houses
Hull House – Jane Addams’ Settlement House
• Settlement Houses
established playgrounds,
libraries, social clubs,
day-care centers and
classes in everything
from home management
to art
• Though helpful,
settlement houses were
too few to significantly aid
the masses
1. List four reasons middle-class families were
smaller
2. How did mechanization affect unskilled workers?
3. What two occupations were considered proper for
middle-class women?
4. What movement developed as a means to protect
the farmer?
5. Who was most responsible for the establishment
of public schools?
6. What are push and pull factors as they apply to
immigration?
7. Where did most immigrants enter the United
States?
8. What were “immigration banks”?
9. What was the Padrone system?
10. Americans against immigration were called what?
11. What religion did Nativists most dislike?
12. The assimilation of immigrants into American
society was called…?
13. Who was Jacob Riis?
14. What allowed the growth of suburbs?
15. What was Roebling’s accomplishment?
16. What two new words were added to the American
vocabulary due to new forms of architecture?
17. What athletic activity became an American fad?
18. What team sport was invented?
19. What were social gospelers?
20. What was the purpose of settlement houses?