uni t7

Jacob Riis and Urban Poverty

• Jacob Riis: Danish immigrant, police reporter, photographer.

• Book: How the Other Half Lives (1889).

• Documented tenement life, poverty, and immigrant suffering in NYC.

• Used photography to expose:

  • Slums

  • Disease

  • Overcrowding

  • Government neglect

• Impact:

  • Raised public awareness.

  • Influenced urban reform movements.

  • Helped middle/upper classes empathize with poor.

Historical significance: journalism + photography used as tools for social reform.

Urbanization and City Growth

Causes of Urban Growth (1860–1910)

• Urban population: 6 million → 44 million.

• Industrialization created factory jobs.

• Immigration from southern/eastern Europe.

• Rural Americans moved to cities due to farm decline.

• Cities offered:

  • Electricity, plumbing, transportation.

  • Jobs and higher wages.

  • Entertainment and social opportunities.

New Urban Infrastructure

• Skyscrapers: steel-frame construction.

• Transportation developments:

  • Horse/steam cars → electric trolleys (1890s).

  • Subways (NYC, Boston, Philadelphia).

• Streetcar suburbs:

  • Middle/upper classes moved away from city centers.

  • Led to class-based residential segregation.

Class Differences in Urban Living

Slum/Tenement Living (Working Class)

• Overcrowded buildings.

• Poor sanitation and ventilation.

• Disease (measles, scarlet fever).

• High rents despite poor conditions.

• Multiple families per apartment.

• Crime, pollution, lack of police protection.

• Caused by:

  • Landlord greed.

  • Lack of regulation.

  • Poverty cycles.

Middle and Upper Class Living

• Mansions and suburbs.

• Clean neighborhoods.

• Decorative homes and leisure space.

• Greater comfort and safety.

Key concept: widening economic inequality in cities.

Tenement Crisis and Social Reform Argument

• Poor conditions caused by systemic economic forces, not individual failure.

• Landlords prioritized profit over safety.

• Social effects:

  • Crime

  • Disease

  • Family breakdown

  • Social instability

• Reformers called for:

  • Housing regulations

  • Business ethics

  • Government responsibility.

Political Machines

Definition

• Informal political organizations exchanging services for votes.

• Led by political bosses.

How They Worked

• Provided:

  • Jobs

  • Housing

  • Protection

  • Social services

• Received:

  • Political loyalty and votes.

• Relied heavily on immigrant support.

Positive Effects

• Helped poor immigrants survive.

• Built infrastructure.

• Improved services (transportation, parks).

• Created early housing standards.

Negative Effects

• Corruption and bribery.

• Controlled hiring and government contracts.

• Election fraud.

• Favored supporters.

Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall

• William “Boss” Tweed led NYC political machine.

• Controlled city government.

• Accepted bribes and inflated public contracts.

• NYC courthouse scandal extremely overpriced.

• Exposed by:

  • Journalists.

  • Political cartoons by Thomas Nast.

• Arrested, fled, captured, died in jail (1878).

Significance: symbol of urban corruption.

George Washington Plunkitt — “Honest Graft”

• Tammany Hall politician.

• Distinguished:

  • Dishonest graft = illegal stealing.

  • Honest graft = using insider knowledge legally.

• Justified political favoritism and profit from office.

• Shows normalization of corruption.

Reform Movements (Progressive Roots)

Goals

• End corruption.

• Improve urban conditions.

• Professionalize city government.

Key Reformers

• Jane Addams — Hull House settlement house (Chicago, 1889).

  • Education, childcare, social services.

• Hiram Johnson — anti-machine reform (California).

• Samuel M. Jones — worker reforms, social programs.

• Protestant clergy opposed political machines.

Settlement Houses

• Provided:

  • Education

  • Childcare

  • Job training

  • Social services for immigrants.

Thomas Nast and Political Reform

• Political cartoonist (Harper’s Weekly).

• Attacked Tammany Hall corruption.

• Created political symbols:

  • Democratic donkey.

  • Republican elephant.

• His cartoons shaped public opinion and helped remove Tweed.

Immigration and Urban Society

• Immigrants filled factory jobs.

• Lived mainly in ethnic neighborhoods.

• Political machines helped immigrants gain power.

• Often displaced African Americans socially/economically.

Urban Problems

• Pollution and sewage.

• Overcrowding.

• Unsafe working conditions.

• Disease spread.

• Waste management issues.

• Weak city governments.

Leisure and Popular Culture

New Entertainment

• Sports (baseball, boxing).

• Vaudeville shows.

• Amusement parks.

• Movies.

• Department stores as social spaces.

Social Impact

• Reflected class divisions.

• Provided escape from work.

• Showed ethnic tensions and stereotypes.

Realism in Art and Literature

Realism Movement

• Focused on everyday life.

• Rejected romantic or idealized themes.

• Showed industrial society and working class.

Major Figures

• Mark Twain — The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

• Henry James, Hamlin Garland, Rebecca Harding Davis.

• Ashcan School artists — urban working-class scenes.

Historical meaning: culture reflected industrial and social realities.

Major APUSH Themes

• Industrialization drives urbanization.

• Immigration reshapes American cities.

• Economic inequality increases.

• Government corruption vs reform.

• Rise of Progressive reform ideas.

• Cultural shift toward realism.

• Growth of mass consumer culture.

Key Terms for APUSH

• Urbanization

• Tenements

• Political machines

• Boss Tweed

• Tammany Hall

• Settlement houses

• Streetcar suburbs

• Realism

• Social reform

• Honest graft

• Progressive reform roots

• Industrial city growth