Notes on New Middle Class, Mass Culture, and Western Settlement

The New Middle Class and the Rise of Mass Culture

Introduction

  • We are discussing the new middle class and the rise of mass culture in the context of immigration, urbanization, and industrialization.

  • The new middle class is a key demographic that emerged during industrialization, similar to the new immigrants at the lower end of the economic scale and the wealthy industrialists like Rockefeller and Carnegie.

Definition of the New Middle Class

  • Unlike middle-class farmers who were generalists, the new middle class consists of educated professionals with specialized knowledge.

  • Examples include doctors, lawyers, college professors, and sociologists.

  • These professionals have a high degree of training and education in a specific field.

The Role of Professionals in Industry

  • Just as industrialists like Carnegie and Rockefeller needed unskilled laborers for factory work, they also needed professionals such as accountants, insurance people, attorneys, managers, and administrators to run their businesses effectively.

  • These new middle-class professionals were essential for the functioning of large-scale industrial operations.

Characteristics of the New Middle Class

  1. Specialized Education:

    • Highly educated in a particular specialty.

  2. Emphasis on Sports and Exercise:

    • A new emphasis on sports and exercise emerged because the new middle class had sedentary jobs, unlike farmers who engaged in physical labor all day.

    • This led to the popularity of activities like going to the beach, cycling, tennis, and sports organizations like the NCAA, YMCA, and YWCA.

White Collar vs. Blue Collar Workers

  • The new middle class is also known as white collar workers, a term originating from the fact that their work in offices allowed them to wear white shirts without getting dirty.

  • In contrast, working-class people who performed manual labor were called blue collar workers because they wore darker-colored shirts that didn't show dirt as easily.

Changing Attitudes Towards Clothing

  • The emphasis on exercise led to more revealing clothing.

  • During the Victorian era, middle-class people were uptight about sex, and proper women wore dresses that covered their wrists and ankles.

  • The new exercise activities required clothes that allowed movement, leading to more revealing attire and scandalizing the middle class.

Victorian Era Sensibilities Towards Sex

  • The Victorian era was characterized by a squeamishness about sexual matters.

  • Sex was not discussed in mixed company, and women were not supposed to enjoy it.

  • This attitude is reflected in the euphemisms used for body parts (e.g., wee wee, pee pee, vajayjay) and practices like covering piano legs in some churches.

Investigative and Yellow Journalism

  • Yellow Journalism:

    • Stories designed to grab readers' attention through sensationalism.

    • This developed as a way to compete for readers' attention.

  • Clickbait:

    • A modern type of yellow journalism.

The Rise of Leisure Time

  • Before the industrial era, people in agricultural economies worked six days a week.

  • The new middle class, however, had a 45-hour work week, resulting in weekends off.

  • With this new leisure time, people engaged in exercise, sports, and reading.

Boom in Newspapers and Magazines

  • The availability of leisure time and a literate middle class led to a boom in the publication of newspapers and magazines.

  • These publications sought to attract readers with sensational stories about sex scandals, murders, kidnappings, and divorces of the rich and famous.

Mass Culture

  • The developments discussed contribute to the emergence of mass culture, which is a culture shared by a broad range of people across the country.

  • Before this, culture was more regional or local.

Examples of Mass Culture Today:

  • Celebrities

  • Fashion

  • Food

Vaudeville

  • Vaudeville shows, which are live entertainment and variety shows, also contributed to mass culture.

  • These shows featured magicians, stand-up comedians, sketches, singers, and one-act plays, and were performed in cities across the country.

  • The Three Stooges, a comedy group known for their movie shorts, started on vaudeville stages.

The United States Mail and Telephones

  • The United States mail and telephones were also instruments of mass culture.

  • The post office was a primary form of communication across distances, and magazines and newspapers were sent through the mail.

  • Telephones allowed people to communicate across large distances, though they were primitive by today's standards, with operators connecting calls and shared phone lines.

Settlement of the Great Plains

The Homestead Act

  • The Homestead Act gave 160 acres of land to anyone who would settle on it.

  • This was a huge opportunity for immigrants and those living in crowded East Coast cities.

  • The Great Plains is located between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.

Displacement of Plains Indian Tribes

  • Before white settlers could occupy the Great Plains, Native American tribes had to be moved out of the way.

  • This is part of the story of American history, where white settlement displaced Native Americans, similar to the Trail of Tears in 1830 when the five civilized tribes were forced to move into Oklahoma.

Characteristics of the Plains Indians

  • The Plains Indians differed from other Native Americans due to their use of the horse.

  • Major tribes included the Sioux, Apache, and Comanche.

  • They were semi-nomadic horse culture, and their entire economy was based on the buffalo, which was used for food, clothing, tools, and shelter.

The Comanche

  • Initially, white settlement leapfrogged over the Great Plains because the Spanish and American military could not defeat the Comanche.

  • The American military decided to wipe out the buffalo to undermine the Comanche economy.

Reservations

  • After the buffalo were gone, the American military moved Native Americans onto reservations, which were designated lands where they were required to stay.

Battle of Little Bighorn

  • The Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana was a significant event.

  • Sioux chief Sitting Bull united smaller clans to resist white encroachment.

  • General George Armstrong Custer, a famous cavalry commander, led his men against the advice of his guides and was outnumbered 10 to 1.

  • Custer and all his men died.

Yellow Journalism and Custer's Last Stand

  • Yellow journalists turned the Battle of Little Bighorn into a story known as Custer's Last Stand, portraying Custer and his men as brave heroes who fought courageously against superior numbers.

  • This story, though inaccurate, became part of the myth about how America was settled.

Myths

  • Previously, the word myth means something is not true.

  • A myth is a story that people tell to reinforce their values.

  • Custer's Last Stand became part of America's founding myth, portraying the country's origins as rooted in the bravery and courage of soldiers.

Dawes Act and Wounded Knee

  • Dawes Act:

    • A law that gave specific lots of land to individual Native American families in an effort to assimilate them into mainstream American culture.

  • Battle of Wounded Knee (Wounded Knee Massacre):

    • The last conflict between the American military and Native Americans, where American soldiers killed about 200 Lakota Sioux, most of whom were unarmed.

Cowboys

Cowboys in American Culture

  • Cowboys are a significant part of American culture.

  • In Texas, after the Civil War, cattle ranching became a major industry to meet the demand for beef in growing cities.

  • Cowboys drove cattle from Texas to Kansas, where they were shipped by rail to cities like Chicago.

Life of a Cowboy

  • The work was tough, involving herding cattle and driving them long distances through difficult conditions.

  • Despite lasting only about twenty years, the cowboy era left a lasting impact on American culture.

Rugged Individualism

  • The image of the cowboy embodies the American myth of rugged individualism, is the primary American value, which is the belief that anyone can succeed through hard work, intelligence, and talent, regardless of their background is.

  • Cowboys represented the epitome of rugged individualism.

Life on the Plains for Homesteaders

Challenges of Homesteading:

1. Housing:

  • Lack of trees led to the construction of sod houses made of dried mud and straw.

  • Sod houses were prone to mud, animal intrusions, and fleas.
    2. Extreme Weather:

  • Flooding in the spring.

  • Dangerous blizzards in the winter.
    3. Crop Pests:

  • Locusts and cicadas would eat crops.

  • A major locust swarm in 1874 was 10 miles high, wide, and deep.
    4. Isolation:

  • Homesteaders, especially women, faced extreme isolation.

  • The remoteness could lead to mental breakdowns.

Improvements Over Time

  • As railroads were built, towns