Deck 20: The Rise of an Urban Order 1870-1900

Question 1

The chapter introduction tells the story of the Great Chicago Fire to make the point that

A) city life was becoming especially stressful for many Americans.
B) while the city was a harsh place, there were some who cared enough to give aid.
C) the city would survive because of its strategic location.
D) fire codes of the nineteenth century were in need of an overhaul.

Answer 1

the city would survive because of its strategic location.

Question 2

Which of the following statements about late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century immigrants is true?

A) Most settled in ethnic communities centered on church life.
B) They bore fewer children than the native-born.
C) Most were Protestants.
D) They all came with the intention of permanently settling, although many went home.

Answer 2

Most settled in ethnic communities centered on church life.

Question 3

Before the 1880s, most immigrants came from _________; after the 1880s, most immigrants came from _______.

A) the European continent; the British Isles
B) Ireland; Scandinavia
C) northern and western Europe; southern and eastern Europe
D) Europe; Latin America

Answer 3

northern and western Europe; southern and eastern Europe

Question 4

What transformed the appearance of American cities in the late 1800s?

A) The streetcar and subway spread the city out.
B) The skyscraper stretched the city up.
C) The city spread both outward and upward, due to streetcars, subways, and skyscrapers.
D) None of these answers is correct.

Question 5

The urban political machines stayed in power in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century because

A) they kept immigrants from getting jobs.
B) they supported the Democratic Party, which dominated national politics.
C) no one exposed their corrupt practices.
D) they effectively provided needed services to the poorer city dwellers.

Question 6

Which is NOT true of political machines?

A) They served as a crude welfare system.
B) They enriched the bosses.
C) They convinced city-dwellers that government should not be trusted to help the needy.
D) They built modern city systems and forced city government to work.

Question 7

How did women's colleges respond to Dr. Edward Clarke's assertion that the rigors of a college education could lead the "weaker sex"to physical or mental collapse, infertility, and early death?

A) They accepted only "new women" who were more likely to already be physically fit.
B) They implemented programs of physical activity to keep students healthy.
C) Most colleges realized the problem was not women's health per se; rather, it was their restrictive dress, so they changed the dress code to require lighter, more comfortable clothes.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 8

Which of the following statements best describes the typical pattern of immigrant life?

A) Stripped of their religious and linguistic identity, immigrants dispersed into the general population mix of the city, rapidly assimilating into their adopted homeland.
B) Hostile to Anglo-Saxon ways, immigrants crowded together in "foreign quarters," embracing each other's cultural contributions while resisting assimilation.
C) Clustered into ever-changing neighborhoods in the cities, with a church or synagogue at the center, ethnic communities both preserved Old World flavor and eased the transition to an Americanized culture.
D) Shaped by their rural peasant backgrounds, European immigrant men married quickly and bought a farm as soon as they could.

Question 9

An urban middle-class woman was primarily judged by

A) how many children she had.
B) how much money she contributed to the family.
C) the state of her home.
D) how well read she was.

Question 10

Which of the following was NOT a trend in education in the late nineteenth century?

A) City girls and boys, as required by law in most states, attended school together for most of the workday.
B) Many new colleges were established, underwritten by grants from both private philanthropists and government.
C) Marginal groups like blacks and immigrants looked to education as a way to get ahead.
D) Literacy rose sharply.

Question 11

The ________ movement began in the 1920s with the purpose of restraining the sale and use of alcohol.

A) nativist
B) settlement house
C) suffrage
D) temperance

Question 12

Which of the following statements about arts and entertainment in the city in the late nineteenth century is accurate?

A) It brought the classes together.
B) It was divided along class lines.
C) Workingmen began to frequent operas and symphonies.
D) The saloon became the most popular place of entertainment for the Victorian middle class.

Question 13

A hierarchical political organization that controlled the activities of a political party and was usually headed by a political boss was known as a political _______.

Question 14

A social reform effort in which workers lived and worked among the poor in neighborhood centers was known as the _________ house.

Question 15

The most notorious of the corrupt city politicians who ultimately died in prison was New York's Boss William _______.

Question 16

Late-nineteenth-century patterns of American middle-class taste and morality were labeled _______, after Britain's long-reigning queen.

Question 17

Sports had been a traditional form of recreation for the rich; but, because it required less skill and equipment, ________ had more middle-class appeal.

Question 18

What brought about the modern city, and what factors accounted for the urban explosion of the late nineteenth century?

Question 19

Who were the "new"immigrants and how did they differ from "old"immigrants?

Question 20

Describe immigrant life in the city.

Question 21

What geographic look did modern cities take, and how did they continue to function as they grew to enormous size?

Question 22

Describe the origins and functioning of boss rule.

Question 23

What were the "Social Gospel"and the settlement house?

Question 24

What does the term "Victorian"mean, and how did it affect the development of urban middle-class life?

Question 25

What roles did education perform in the late nineteenth century?

Question 26

What was the impact of city life on women and African Americans?

Question 27

To what extent were the "new"immigrants pushed out of their native countries or "pulled"to America? Why did so many return to their native countries, and why were Jews the major exception to this trend?

Question 28

Why did well-defined ethnic communities develop in American cities? What factors explain the relatively quick pace of assimilation among the children of immigrants?

Question 29

How did some urban housing reforms of the late nineteenth century eventually add to urban blight?

Question 30

In what sense did boss rule revolutionize city government? What was the price paid for the boss system? Do you think the costs were worth the benefits?

Question 31

How did mass consumption practices and mass entertainment activities help to tie the nation together in the late nineteenth century?