Unfinished Nation - Chapter 18 Key Terms

Chapter 18: The Age of the City

Armory Show

an event in New York City that displayed works of the French postimpressionists and of some American modern artists; supported by the Ashcan artists

Ashcan school

art movement whose members produced work startling in its naturalism and stark in its portrayal of the social realities of the era

city beautiful movement

led by architect Daniel Burnham, the movement sought to impose order and symmetry on the disordered life of American cities

Coney Island

the famous and popular amusement park located on a Brooklyn beach

consumerism

an increased focus on purchasing goods for personal use; the protection or promotion of consumer interests

Darwinism

the argument that the human species had evolved from earlier forms of life through a process of "natural selection"

Jacob Riis

New York newspaper photographer who wrote How the Other Half Lives, which used photos and words to expose the harshness of tenement life

Kate Chopin

a southern writer who explored the oppressive features of traditional marriage; known for her shocking novel The Awakening

National Consumers League (NCL)

formed in the 1890s under the leadership of Florence Kelley; goal was to force retailers and manufacturers to improve wages and working conditions

Public Health Service

organization created in 1912; goal was to prevent occupational diseases and create common health standards

Tammany Hall

urban machine led by famously corrupt city boss William M. Tweed

tenements

by the late nineteenth century, this was a descriptor used for slum dwellings

Theodore Dreiser

author of Sister Carrie, which focused on the plight of single women

vaudeville

a form of theater adapted from French models; the most popular urban entertainment into the first decades of the twentieth century

William James

Harvard psychologist and most prominent publicist of pragmatism

William M. Tweed

the famously corrupt boss of New York's political machine Tammany Hall

William Randolph Hearst

the most powerful U.S. newspaper chain owner; by 1914, he controlled nine newspapers and two magazines