American History: A Survey (Brinkley), 13th Edition

Chapter 18: THE AGE OF THE CITY

Study Questions

1
What was the attraction of the city, and what were the main sources of urban growth in this period?
2
How did the immigrants, rising in number after the 1880s, differ in ethnic background and economic status from most of the earlier immigrants?
3
Why did most immigrants settle in industrial cities? What were the ethnic neighborhoods like?
4
Which immigrant groups adapted especially well economically? Which groups lagged? Why?
5
What social institutions and community actions helped facilitate immigrant assimilation, especially that of European immigrants, to life in America?
6
What organizations and laws resulted from the resentment that many native-born Americans felt toward the new immigrants? Why didn't Congress pass more such laws?
7
In what ways was the huge migration into the United States part of a worldwide phenomenon? What were the "push" and "pull" factors that brought immigrants to the U.S.?
8
What motives led to the movement for great urban parks, libraries, museums, and other public facilities in the late nineteenth century? What park became the standard?
9
How did large cities expand their boundaries and the land available for development in this period?
10
Compare and contrast the urban and suburban residential patterns of the wealthy and moderately well-to-do with those of the majority.
11
How did urban mass transportation technology evolve from horse-drawn streetcars to more modern mass transit?
12
What new construction technologies made the "skyscraper" possible?
13
Describe the urban hazards of fire, disease, and sanitation and the public and private responses to them. What was the effect of the several great fires and disasters from 1871 to 1906?
14
What were the main environmental problems of the cities? What improvements were made in the early twentieth century?
15
What bred the increasing crime rate of late-nineteenth-century America? How did the cities respond?
16
What factors contributed to the rise of political machines and their bosses? What were the positive as well as the negative aspects of boss rule in large cities?
17
Describe the changes in income and purchasing power of the urban middle and working classes. Who made the greater gains? Who lagged behind?
18
What new developments in clothing, food, and retailing accompanied the new consumerism?
19
How did the rise of mass consumption impact life for American women—especially middle-class urban women?
20
How did turn-of-the-century Americans come to reconceptualize their idea of "leisure"? How was this manifested differently among different groups?
21
Compare and contrast the rise of baseball with that of football. What other spectator sports became popular as Americans came to enjoy more leisure time?
22
What was vaudeville? What role did black performers play in it?
23
How did motion pictures evolve from the 1880s to the early twentieth century?
24
What important changes occurred in journalism in the decades after the Civil War?
25
What is meant by "highbrow" and "lowbrow" culture?
26
What issues did the realist novelists explore?
27
In what ways did American art begin to emerge from its European dominance?
28
How did Darwinism challenge traditional American religious faith? What were the differing responses? (See previous chapters for Social Darwinism.)
29
How did the rising respect for scientific inquiry combine with Darwinism to affect a wide range of intellectual inquiry?
30
Describe the evolution of free public schooling in the United States. What parts of the nation lagged in education?
31
What government and private actions combined to lead the establishment of new universities and colleges and significant expansion of existing institutions after the Civil War? How did these institutions contribute to economic advancement?
32
What opportunities for higher education were available to women in this era? What were the distinctive characteristics of women's colleges?
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