Chapter 17 terms

Political machine

Organization run by a boss who used rewards to keep his loyal followers in office; often correct but also beneficial to city dwellers; dominated many cities in the late 19th century

Tammany Hall

Long-standing political machine in New York City

Railroad Suburbs

Wealthy communities built along major railroad lines farther out from the city

Streetcar Suburbs

Middle class communities built along streetcar lines close to the city

Settlement house

Provided various Social Services to the poor and immigrants in urban working class neighborhoods

Jane Addams

Established Hull House in Chicago, one of the most influential settlement houses.

Herbert Spencer

Advocated social Darwinism; warned that society should not “Foster the good for nothing at the expense of the good”

William Graham Sumner

Head of political and social science at Yale; promoted social Darwinism, are you that social conditions were traditions or customs that the government should not interfere with

Pragmatism

Theory by William James: truth arose from the testing of new ideas, the value of which lay in their practical consequences; reflected the “inventive experimental spirit”

Social Gospel

Protestant response to changing society; operated on the principle “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”; asked “What would Jesus do?”; Washington Gladden was prominent advocate.

Tenement

Run down and overcrowded apartment house, especially in a poor section of a large city

Jacob Riis

Muckraker journalist and photographer who exposed slum conditions in his book “How the Other Half Lives”