Chapter 8 Life at the Turn of the 20 th Century
Jan 02, 2016
Chapter 8
Life at the Turn of the 20th Century
Science and Urban Life
Technology and City Life
• SKYSCRAPERS
• Two factors that helped design taller buildings• Invention of elevators• Development of
internal steel skeletons
• Skyscraper• The Flatiron Building
• ELECTRIC TRANSIT
• Changes in transportation• Electric streetcars • Elevated trains• Subways
• AIRPLANES
• Orville and Wilbur Wright design a biplane• December 17, 1903
– the flight took place in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
• Covered 120 feet and lasted 12 seconds
Expanding Public Education
Expanding Public Education
• SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN
• 1865-1895 – states require 12 to 16 weeks annually of school attendance by students between the ages of 8 and 14
• Patterns in public education differed sharply for white and black students
• THE GROWTH OF HIGH SCHOOLS
• Economy – demands advanced technical and managerial skills• 1900 – half a million students attend high school
• Vocational courses prepare graduates for industrial and office jobs
• RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
• African Americans – mostly excluded from public secondary education• 1890 – less than 1
percent of black teenagers attended high school
• Two-thirds of the students went to private schools
• EDUCATION FOR IMMIGRANTS
• Immigrants are encouraged to go to school• Free public schools “Americanize” immigrants• Private Catholic schools
• Night school for adults• Learn English• Qualify for American
citizenship
Segregation and Discrimination
African Americans Fight Legal Discrimination
• VOTING RESTRICTIONS
• Southern states impose voting restrictions and denied legal equality to African Americans• Literacy test• Poll tax
• The grandfather clause
• JIM CROW LAWS
• 1870s and 1880s, Southern states passed racial segregation laws• Separate white and
black people in public and private facilities
• Racial segregation in schools, hospitals, parks, and transportation systems
• PLESSY v. FERGUSON
• U.S. Supreme Court tests the constitutionality of segregation
• 1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson• Separation of races in
public accommodations was legal and did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment
• “Separate but equal”
Turn-of-the-Century Race Relations
• VIOLENCE
• Lynching's
• 1882-1892 – 1,400 African-American were shot, burned, or hanged without trial
• DISCRIMINATION IN THE NORTH
• African Americans migrate to the North in search for a better life• Segregated
neighborhoods• Discrimination in the
workplace
• New York City race riot of 1900
Discrimination in the West
• MEXICAN WORKERS
• Mexicans construct rail lines in the Southwest
• Mexicans were vital to mining and agriculture in the Southwest
• Debt peonage
The Dawn of Mass Culture
American Leisure
• AMUSEMENT PARKS • Large cities establish
space for outdoor enjoyment• The roller coaster
and Coney Island• The first Ferris
wheel – at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893
• BICYCLING AND TENNIS
• 1885 – first commercially successful “safety bicycle”• Emancipated women
across America
• Tennis • Originated in North
Wales in 1873• Became a popular
middle class sport
• BASEBALL
• 50 baseball clubs in the mid-1860s
• Formation of different leagues• The National League in 1876• The American League in 1900
• African-American Leagues
The Spread of Mass Culture
• MASS CIRCULATION NEWSPAPERS
• American newspapers use sensational headlines• Joseph Pulitzer and
the New York World
• William Randolph Hearst and the New York Morning Journal
New Ways to Sell Goods
• URBAN SHOPPING
• The nation’s first shopping center opened in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1890• Four levels of
jewelry, leather goods, and stationery shops
• THE DEPARTMENT STORE
• Marshall Field of Chicago brings the department store concept to America
• Field’s motto • “Give the lady what she wants”
• THE CHAIN STORE
• Retail stores offering the same merchandise under the same ownership• 1870s – F. W. Woolworth sells for a very low price• 1911 – 596 stores
sell merchandise worse more than a million dollars
• ADVERTISING
• Medicines accounts for the largest number of advertising lines
• Newspapers and magazines used to push products
• CATALOGS AND RFD
• Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck• Ward’s catalog• Sears catalog
• 1910 – 10 million Americans shop by mail
• Rural free delivery