U.S. History / Unit 5: Industrialization, Immigration and the Gilded Age
5.5 The Growth of Cities
Notes
Industry and immigration made cities grow rapidly. By 1920, more Americans lived in urban areas than in rural ones.
- Poor families crowded into tenements: cramped apartments with little light, air or plumbing. Disease and fire were constant dangers.
- Photographer Jacob Riis exposed tenement life in ***How the Other Half Lives* (1890)**.
- Settlement houses offered classes, child care and help to immigrants. Jane Addams founded Hull House in Chicago (1889).
- Political machines, such as New York's Tammany Hall under "Boss" William Tweed, traded jobs and favors for votes. They helped immigrants but were often corrupt.
- Cities built skyscrapers, electric streetcars, subways and public parks.
Practice
Jane Addams's Hull House is an example of a:
Settlement houses helped immigrants and the urban poor with education and services.
Why did many immigrants support political machines like Tammany Hall?
Machines offered practical help, though they used corruption to stay in power.
Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives is best described as:
Riis's images helped push for housing reform.
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