C25 - America Moves to the City 1865-1900

Question 1

nativism

Answer 1

Antiforeignism. Many Americans did not welcome new immigrants, especially from Eastern and Southern Europe who were coming to America in the 1880s.

Some viewed them as not as smart or not as good. Some saw these immigrants coming to happily work low-wage jobs, which got in the way of the Labor movement’s goals of pushing for higher wages, etc.

Some blamed them for bad conditions in large American Cities.

1882: First federal laws restricting immigration. Criminals were not allowed in and shippers had to pay to send them back. Then certain foreign workers under contract weren’t allowed in, along with insane, polygamists, anarchists, alcoholics, and people with contagious diseases. Many pushed for a literacy test too.

Question 2

social gospel

Answer 2

The movement applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, child labor, inadequate labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war

Question 3

yellow journalism

Answer 3

Yellow journalism, or the yellow press, is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers.

Exaggeration and sensationalism are 2 examples.

Question 4

Women’s Christian Temperance Union

Answer 4

Formed in 1874 to fight for Prohibition (laws to make drinking alcohol illegal).

Question 5

Modernist

Answer 5

People who believed in Charles Darwin’s idea of evolution.

Question 6

philanthropy

Answer 6

Charitable work and giving

Question 7

Florence Kelley

Answer 7

Fought for workers, women’s, children’s, blacks’, and consumers’ rights. Led the women of Hull House to lobby successfully for an anti-sweatshop law in 1893.

Moved to Henry Street Settlement in NY and served for 3 decades as leader of the National Consumers League

Question 8

Hull House

Answer 8

Started in Chicago by Jane Addams in 1889. A settlement house, a place where people in the city came together to solve social problems.

Offered English teaching to immigrants, childcare, cultural activities.

Question 9

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Answer 9

Major feminist. In 1898 published: “Women and Economics”. Called on women to abandon their dependent status and contribute to the economy by getting jobs.

Question 10

James Addams

Answer 10

Started the Hull House in Chicago and worked to improve the lives of people (including immigrants) who lived in cities.

Given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

She was anti-war and anti-poverty.

Question 11

Horatio Alger

Answer 11

1866, this Puritan preacher left the pulpit to become a writer. Wrote over 100 fictional novels usual with themes following his formula that virtue, honesty and industry would be rewarded by success, wealth and honor.

Question 12

Comstock Law

Answer 12

1873 this crusader used a new federal law, the Comstock Law, to crusade against immoral activities. He proclaimed himself a defender of sexual purity.

His antics along with Woodhull’s on the other side of the debate brought to light the late-1800’s debate related to sexual attitudes and the place of women.

Question 13

Charles Darwin

Answer 13

Published his book in 1859: On the Origin of Species. He held the view of “survival of the fittest”.

Theory of evolution: said that humans evolved from lower forms of life.

This theory contradicted some teachings of the Bible.

Split formed between “Fundamentalists or Conservatives” who believed in the literal interpretation of the Bible and “Modernists” who believed in Darwin’s theory.

Question 14

evolution

Answer 14

Charles Darwin’s theory of how humans develop. His theory contradicted the Bible.

Question 15

New Immigration

Answer 15

In 1880s immigrants started coming from different areas of Europe, like Eastern Europe and Southern Europe - Poland, Italy, etc.

Some Americans distrusted these different immigrants. They were used to immigrants from Germany, Britain and Western Europe.

Question 16

Chautauqua movement

Answer 16

1874 - Launched @ Lake Chautauqua, NY.

Successor to earlier Lyceum talks, this movement provided lectures/education for adults.

Speakers like Mark Twain would speak at these.

Before this movement, public education focused only on children.

Question 17

Carrie Chapman Catt

Answer 17

1900: Took over as leader of the Women’s Suffrage movement (fighting for women’s right to vote).

Question 18

settlement house

Answer 18

A settlement house—sometimes also called a community or neighborhood center—is a neighborhood-based organization that provides services and activities designed to identify and reinforce the strengths of individuals, families and communities.

Hull settlement house in Chicago was one of the first.

Question 19

pragmatism

Answer 19

Idea developed by William James. Said pragmatism was America’s greatest contribution to the history of philosophy. Said that truth and theories had to be tested. Doers were valued. Not just people with theories.

Question 20

megalopolis

Answer 20

Large city/metropolitan area.

New York, Chicago and Philadelphia were examples in late 1800s.

Question 21

Eighteenth Amendment

Answer 21

Amendment to Constitution. Prohibition. Prohibited alcohol.

Question 22

Morrill Act

Answer 22

1862 and successor Hatch Act of 1887 gave federal funds and land to support starting universities.

Question 23

American Protective Association

Answer 23

Nativist/antiforeign organization, formed in 1887. Urged voting against Roman Catholic candidates.

Question 24

William James

Answer 24

One of America’s most brilliant intellectuals, he served on the faculty of Harvard for 35 years. He made a deep mark on may fields like the fields of Psychology, Philosophy, psychology of Religion.

Developed the idea of Pragmatism. Said pragmatism was America’s greatest contribution to the history of philosophy. Said that truth and theories had to be tested. Doers were valued. Not just people with theories.

Question 25

Booker T. Washington

Answer 25

In 1881, he led the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He was committed to teaching black people about agriculture and the trades so they could earn $ and lift themselves out of poverty.

1896, George Washington Carver joined the faculty of Tuskegee. His discovery of many uses for the peanut (shampoo, axle grease) gave a much needed boost to the southern economy.

Question 26

Mary Baker Eddy

Answer 26

1879: She founded the Christian Science Church.

Her beliefs said that following true Christianity (not medicine) heals sickness.

Question 27

Henry George

Answer 27

Journalist, author and speaker who shared his beliefs widely about how progress was associated with poverty.

Question 28

W.E.B. Du Bois

Answer 28

Black leader - first black to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard. He demanded complete equality for blacks and founded the NAACP in 1910.

He rejected Booker T. Washington’s approach of more slowly attempting black equality.

Question 29

Mark Twain

Answer 29

Born Samuel Langhorn Clemens - America’s most popular author and lecturer.

Wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Part of a new wave of less formal old-style English writing.

Question 30

Louis Sullivan

Answer 30

Chicago architect who built some of the first steel skyscrapers.

Question 31

Emily Dickinson

Answer 31

Gifted poet whose works were discovered after she died in 1886.

Question 32

Victoria Woodhull

Answer 32

Feminist who with her sister published a weekly, starting in 1871 - stating her belief in free love. Also accused the father of Harriett Beecher Stowe of being an adulterer.

This was an example of the battle going on in late 1800’s about sexual attitudes and the place of women.

Question 33

Growth in higher education/Universities

Answer 33

From about 1879 - 1898, philanthropists like John D. Rockefeller and other industrial giants donated large sums of $ to start colleges like: Cornell, Stanford, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins.