New Corporate Order, A: Plight of the Worker, The
The industrial revolution creates many factory jobs, most of which are occupied by unskilled laborers. These men, women and children earn a very low wage, work long hours and in deplorable conditions. The result is a poor, uneducated working class w...
Restless Society: Divisions in the Civil Rights Movement
Racial injustice is no longer limited to South or rural areas. Sixty-nine percent of blacks now live in cities, often in embattled inner-city neighborhoods where there is a growing sense of abandonment and anger. The Watts Riot in the summer of 1965...
Divergent Paths: Cities of 17th Century Colonial America
Cities, even in the 17th century, play a prominent role in the economic and social life of the colonies. Early population centers--New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Charles Town--are often referred to as walking cities. There is little stratificati...
Age of the City, The: Strains of Urban Life
Increasing congestion places a strain on the capacity of cities to protect those who live within their boundaries. When plagues hit, like the cholera epidemic that invades cities in the 19th century, city officials are forced to implement public hea...
Age of the City, The: Urban Landscape, The
The city at the end of the 19th century is a place of remarkable contrasts. Planning and building simply cannot keep up with the pace of growth. As one reformer laments, it is a challenge to make "a great city in a few years out of nothing." City pl...
Age of the City, The: Infrastructure and Political Issues
Growth forces cities to rebuild their infrastructure and reconceptualize their political systems in the late 19th century. In fact the governmental institutions and services we think of as essential to an American city are created during this time p...
Way We Were?, The: Suburban Nation, The
By 1960 a third of the nation's population lives in suburbs, an unprecedented demographic shift. The mass production of housing like Levittown creates what some critics call "architectural monotony." The industrial approach and lower price, however,...