American History: A Survey

The industrial boom drove a mass migration from rural areas into cities that occurred through the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. This happened for various reasons, most related to the relative openness of city culture and the economic opportunities that cities presented. Large farms had been replacing small-scale agriculture for decades, and the agrarian life most common during the 17th-19th centuries was becoming both less sustainable and less desirable to many.

The first people to move into cities en masse were members of populations who did not fit in with the still-dominant white patriarchal society in small towns. This included a huge percentage of Black Americans who, after Reconstruction failed, found that although work opportunities for them were still limited in cities in both the South and the North, city life offered them the opportunity to build communities on their own terms. Young women, too, left rural areas for the city, partly due to a desire for a life further outside the patriarchy, but mostly due to a decline in roles for women in rural areas. Small, self-contained family farms were being replaced by large commercial ventures, largely run by men. Heightened commercial availability of previously handmade items like meant that “women’s work“ was no longer a necessity in farm communities. Young women in the city often found themselves doing work similar to that of their forebears on the farm—making clothes, cooking food, etc. Now, however, they made the clothes as factory seamstresses and cooked food as domestic servants for wealthy families.

Immigrants made up by far the largest group of new city dwellers in this time period. The late 19th century was when the US truly became a “melting pot,” as newcomers from across the globe arrived with dreams of a better life. These immigrants often did find success, but they faced real struggles across several fronts. The first was the question of maintaining their cultural identity versus assimilating and becoming “American.” Most early immigrants lived in communities with their fellow countrymen, a strategy that allowed longer-term residents to aid new arrivals and eased the transition into a new society with new social rules and, for many, a new language. Distinct cultural communities upset many Americans who held nativist sentiments and considered immigrants’ preserving their own cultures an affront to the superior “native“ American culture. Immigrant neighborhoods, especially those composed of non-white people, were often poor, overcrowded, and dangerous. In the crowded, narrow streets, disease and crime were rampant and fires broke out often. Although these issues plagued populations across all parts of cities (as in the Great Fire of Chicago), immigrant and Black neighborhoods were particularly at risk—and particularly lacking in outside help to solve the problems.

The hardscrabble existence of many city dwellers contrasted with the Gilded Age stereotypes of the time period. New opportunities in entertainment, art, and other cultural luxuries were widely available in cities, but widening inequality meant that many cultural developments were reserved only for the middle and upper classes. Consumer goods, however, were becoming cheaper to produce and mass-market, and nearly everyone in the country became a target market for goods. White women, often economically stable due to the rising incomes of their husbands, were a particularly valuable base for marketing. Clothing styles began to change rapidly, meaning that women had to spend more to be fashionable. Although a capitalist drive for money fueled women’s importance in the consumer landscape, it eventually helped them gain more societal influence.

As discussed in the previous chapters, the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw upheaval in almost every aspect of American life and culture. The West was filling up, cities were expanding, and the rural farming lifestyle that had dominated the previous eras was no longer the norm. Politics was no different. This period saw multiple important events that shaped the US both domestically and abroad and propelled it toward becoming a major world power.

The late 1800s did not have the same style of divisive party politics as almost every other period of American history. Democrats and Republicans, the ancestors of the principal modern parties, dominated national politics, but their politics had little discernible difference. The federal government did little to influence society in meaningful ways and mostly concentrated on clerical tasks like delivering mail and collecting taxes. In addition, it managed the growing military, but because a period of relative peace followed the Civil War, building this military was not yet a priority. Social and economic problems that plagued many Americans were not a priority for any late-1800s president either—even though the US experienced its worst economic depression to date in 1893. The growing influence of a few large corporations meant that many citizens relied on greedy monopolies for basic goods and services. In many ways, these monopolies were responsible for the weak federal government at the time, as business interests and “party bosses“ controlled almost every aspect of both parties, greatly influenced presidents, and prevented any real reform. Because of growing discontent, laws like the Sherman Antitrust Act were passed—but they did little to create real change in corporate practices.

The first large group to make a stand against the corporate control of government were farmers, who had faced economic decline for decades. They largely—and correctly—blamed many of their struggles on the monopolies, which greatly affected rural economies where competition was light even in the best of times. They formed populist alliances that treated all members, including women, as equals, and began to make headway by electing rural, populist candidates to state legislatures and other local governments. Although the alliances shone a light on the struggles of the poor and rural life—and made important steps in allowing women and Black people to share political power—the populist movement was no match for the great Gilded Age political machine and had little lasting effect. This was partly because the Democrats picked a relatively progressive candidate for the 1896 election, William Jennings Bryan. Although Bryan inspired many with his excellent speaking skills, his nomination ultimately doomed the populist movement and its new People’s Party. Bryan was beaten by Republican William McKinley, who set his sights not on reforming American economic culture but on revisiting the idea of Manifest Destiny, this time abroad. Under McKinley and his followers, America became a true empire.

The idea of social Darwinism had been popular among US intellectuals for decades. This racist belief skewed Charles Darwin’s concept of survival of the fittest to apply to races and nations of humans. In the minds of many, the rapid expansion of the US had proved that it was one of—if not the single—fittest, and this mindset portrayed it as inevitable that the country would conquer new lands. The conquest of the Indigenous Americans was considered proof of this, and the American victory in the Spanish-American war further fueled imperialist sentiment. Under the guise of freeing Cuba from Spanish control, the US claimed several old Spanish colonies, including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Conquests of Hawaii and Samoa happened around the same time. These strategic island holdings were important for the imperialist vision of a worldwide American empire protected by a powerful navy. The Philippines eventually gained independence after a long struggle, but the other areas taken into American control during this time period are still official US territories.