American Society Flashcards
Immigration and urbanisation, 1890-1917:
Between 1890 and the First World War, American society was transformed by industrialisation, urbanisation and demographic change. The size of the population increased and there were significant population movements within the United States; from rural to urban areas, and from region to region. The social attitudes of Americans, both of themselves and of people in other communities, changed also
Social change in America was shaped by the great Atlantic Migration. More than 18 million European immigrants came to the United States in these years, adding to the millions who had come since the surge in migration had begun after the Civil War. These migrants were changed by the experiences of settling in a new society, and they also changed America
How did immigration relate to the expansion of the American economy?
Immigration was both a symptom and a cause of the dynamic expansion of the American economy. Many of the new arrivals were economic migrants drawn to the United States by the promise of work and a better life. But they also provided the vast pool of labour and the huge numbers of domestic consumers to fuel the economic boom. Most of the migrants became urban dwellers, part of the population explosion in American cities. On the one hand, the immigrants were in a sense passive ‘victims’ of urbanisation, pushed along by huge social forces they could not control. On the other hand, the new cities were often shaped by the cultural identities of the migrants, as cities took on the special character of their inhabitants - the sights, sounds and cooking smells of areas such as ‘Little Italy’ in New York, or the ‘Polish Triangle’ in Chicago
The impact of immigration and rapid urbanisation was positive and productive, fuelling economic growth and adding cultural richness. But it also led to tensions and divisions between ethnic communities, between the new arrivals and those who had settled a generation earlier. The immigrants were also caught up in the widening divisions between city and countryside, between North and South, and between Wets and Drys. The growth of power and prosperity in modern America was accompanied by recurrent social upheavals
Mass immigration:
Between 1890 and the First World War, there were 18.4 million immigrants to the United States, boosted by the movement of ‘new’ migrants from southern and eastern Europe. People continued coming from Germany, Scandinavia, and Britain, but the new wave of immigrants came mostly from Austria-Hungary, southern Italy, and the Russian Empire. Many were Jews: it is estimated that one-third of all Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe emigrated to the United States
Mass immigration was immensely important in shaping American society and culture at the start of the twentieth century. The difficulties of assimilating such large numbers of new citizens from such diverse backgrounds presented great challenges to social cohesion. These challenges were intensified by the accelerating pace of urbanisation in America
Why did people migrate to the US?
As always, the new migrants came for a variety of reasons. There were ‘push’ factors, such as the poverty and hunger that drove people to leave southern Italy, or persecution, such as the policy of ‘Russification’ (imposing Russian culture on their sphere of influence) in Tsarist Russia introduced by Alexander III after 1881
There were ‘pull’ factors, such as the idealised belief in America as a land of riches and freedom, or the attraction of joining previously established communities. In the years from 1890 to 1914, both the ‘push’ factors and ‘pull’ factors were especially strong, with a rising surplus population in Europe and a huge demand for migrant workers in the United States
Migration was also boosted by improvements in transportation and communications. Ships were bigger and faster. Departure ports, such as Bremen, Hamburg, and Liverpool, developed sophisticated systems for handling the flow of people from their places of origin to the emigrant ships across the Atlantic. In 1890 the immigration centre at Castle Garden in New York had to be closed because it could not cope adequately with the volume of arrivals. A huge new immigration centre was subsequently opened on Ellis Island in 1892
Returning immigrants:
Not all immigrants came to stay - almost 1 in 3 returned home. This rate of return varied between communities. About 20% of Scandinavians returned home. For Italians the figure was 60%, but only 3% of ‘Russian Jews’ went back. These differences reflected the different motivations behind emigration. 80% of Italian immigrants were male, reflecting the fact that they came to work and send money home to their impoverished families, not necessarily to settle
The pattern of Jewish migration was very different. Most came as families, intent on making a permanent new life. 50% were female, and 25% were children. Most Jews were poor but not badly educated. Of those who arrived between 1908 and 1912, 80% of men and 63% of women were literate. Around 2/3 of the Jewish men counted themselves as skilled workers; for Italian men it was 16%
‘Russian Jews’:
This term is often used in a misleading sense. Most were not Russian at all, but from the minority nationalities in the borderlands of the Russian Empire, such as Poles, Lithuanians, and Ukrainians
Urbanisation:
The United States was transformed by the pace of urbanisation between 1870 and the First World War; though it must be remembered that, until 1920, more Americans still lived and worked on the land than in urban areas
Even so, between 1890 and 1914 the pace of urbanisation in America was unrelenting. The urban skyline was an ever-changing vista of new, taller buildings competing for space and public attention. The construction boom threw up imposing new commercial and civic buildings, vast quantities of housing, tramways, and elevated railways. People arriving for the first time in big cities like Chicago were awestruck by the crowds, the noise, the constant movement, the size of the buildings, and the bewildering variety of economic activity. Urbanisation accelerated the spread of advertising and of modern mass entertainment. Theatres and music halls catered for the masses as well as for the elite, and the film industry started to emerge from small beginnings in small cinemas known as ‘nickelodeons’
Locations of industrialisation, urbanisation and immigration:
Industrialisation, urbanisation and immigration were not evenly spread across the country - it was in the North and East that the most dynamic growth was concentrated. It should also be remembered that urbanisation was not only to be found in the great industrial cities. Urbanisation also transformed small-town America, bringing street lighting, trams, civic buildings, and public utilities to towns of 5000-30,000 populations, such as Belleville in southern Illinois. Even in the larger cities many districts were like separate small towns in themselves, like the German-American community of Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati
What drove the increase in urban populations?
The increase in urban populations was largely driven by immigration, but there were other factors, too. The population was increasing anyway: by 1900 it had grown to 76 million, and by 1920 it would be 100 million. (The birth rate in the United States was actually declining compared with earlier in the nineteenth century, but the death rate, at 16.5 per thousand, was the lowest in the world.) There was also internal migration from the countryside to the cities. From around 1910 African-Americans began moving out of the South to Northern cities like Chicago. During the First World War, this northward migration increased in scale. But it was the influx of immigrants from across the Atlantic that did the most to feed the growth of the cities, swelling the urban population and meeting the insatiable demand for workers - for construction, for service industries, and for the sweatshops of the garment industry
The consequences of immigration and urbanisation for American society and culture:
At the time, many people in the United States believed optimistically that the diverse cultures of immigrant communities would be merged together in a great ‘melting pot’ that would speed up the process of assimilation and bring about a harmonious society. This dream did indeed come true, up to a point. Considering the size and speed of demographic change, it was remarkable how many ‘new Americans’ adopted American values as quickly and as willingly as they did. Even so, the dream of a true ‘melting pot’ did not come true. The reality was a patchwork of different communities where ethnic groups stuck closely together: Irish, German-American, Polish, and Jewish. This was especially true of the industrialised Northeast, where the speed and scale of urbanisation and social change was greatest
On the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York, for example, the densely populated Jewish Quarter rubbed shoulders with nearby Irish and Italian districts. The city of Milwaukee, in Wisconsin, had so many German-American inhabitants that there were 22 German language newspapers
Social and ethnic divisions:
New immigrant communities had a massive impact on municipal (district) politics. People felt they needed protection against discrimination and were receptive to offers of help from local politicians. These politicians were more than willing to offer protection and patronage to secure votes in elections
They offered a kind of social safety net: help with jobs, welfare handouts in emergencies, and so on. The iconic example of this relationship was Tammany Hall in New York City, but there were similar local political machines in Boston, Chicago, and all the major cities. A backlash against this urban, mostly Catholic, political phenomenon was one of the reasons why Populism grew so strongly in the South and West in the 1890s
Immigrants had a complex relationship with the trade unions. Many immigrants joined unions because they were recruited by union leaders like Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), who were anxious to strengthen the unions against the employers. But new immigrants were often seen as a threat, because they formed a pool of cheap, unskilled workers who could be used to undercut wages or to break strikes. This was often a source of tension between older and newer immigrant groups, made worse by religious issues between Protestants and Catholics. The wave of violence in the great strikes in the 1890s, such as the Homestead Strike of 1892 and the Pullman Strike of 1894, were blamed on
‘foreign agitators’
Regional divisions:
There were still marked differences between the regions. Most economic and political power was concentrated in the Northeast; the South remained a place apart, still strongly influenced by the legacies of the past. The West was still an undeveloped region of vast distances and isolation
Regional divisions: The Northeast
The scale of modernisation and social change was greatest in the Northeast. The region east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio contained the powerhouse industries, the booming cities, and the concentrated transportation networks that were the engines of social change. The Northeast was more ‘European’: the region where most immigrants settled, where the political, business and cultural elites were more open to European influences. Many important social trends in the United States were not really nationwide but they seemed so, because of the dominance of the Northeast.
Regional divisions: The South
The South was determinedly different from the rest of the nation. It had a different view of American history, especially of the legacy of the Civil War. The South was politically separate, entirely dominated at state and federal level by the Democratic Party. It was economically different, still dominated by the plantation system and ‘King Cotton’. It was socially separate, with white society resistant to change, clinging to (and at times trying to recreate) the old ways of segregation
The South was rarely a destination for European immigrants (though 11 Italian-Americans were killed by a lynch mob in New Orleans (South) in 1891). However, urbanisation did take effect and there were significant shifts in population. From about 1910 African-Americans began moving out of the South to Northern cities like Chicago; during the First World War, this northward migration increased in scale
Regional divisions: The West
The social and economic development of the West was still patchy and unfinished after 1890. Some territories did not achieve full statehood until as late as 1912. There was rapid development of some big cities, such as Denver and the West Coast ports, but the West continued to be a region of boom towns and ghost towns, symbolised by the sudden rise and fall of mining towns like Victor, Colorado, or the ‘tent city’ of Nome during the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush of the late 1890s. Western society was transient, influenced by the ideas of ‘rugged individualism’. There was a varied population of prospectors, ranchers, drifters, African-Americans, and Mexican migrants
