Steerage
-Third-class accommodations on a steamship, whichwere usually overcrowded and dirty
Ellis Island
-Island in New York Harbor that served as animmigration station for millions of immigrants arrivingto the United States
Angel Island
- Immigrant processing station that opened inSan Francisco Bay in 1910
- Where asian immigrants were processed
Americanization
-Belief that assimilating immigrants intoAmerican society would make them more loyal citizens
Melting Pot
-Society in which people of different nationalitiesassimilate to form one culture
Nativism
-Belief that native-born white Americans are superiorto newcomers
Chinese Expulsion Act
-1882 law that prohibited theimmigration of Chinese laborers
Urbanization
- Expansion of cities and/or an increase in thenumber of people living in them
- 19th Century # of people living in cities increased dramatically
- People leave farms and go to cities for jobs
Rural to Urban Migrants
- A person who moves from an agriculturalarea to a city
- Usually to find work
Skyscraper
- A very tall building
- Built up so they could fit more people in cities
- Commercial businesses needed them
- Led to the developing of elevators
Elisha Otis
- 1850s: Developed a safety elevator that would not fall if lifting rope broke
- Size of skyscrapers was no longer limited
Mass Transit
- Public transportation systems that carrylarge numbers of people
- Usually in cities
- Above ground, but eventually moves below ground (subways)
Suburb
- Residential areas surrounding a city
- Urbanization leads to growth of suburban areas
Frederick Law Olmsted
- Landscape engineer
- Hired by Philadelphia to design Fairmount Park
- Also designed Central Park and other parks in major cities
Tenement
- Multistory building divided into apartments tohouse as many families as possible
- Central bathroom
- Low rent housing that was affordable for immigrants
Mark Twain
- Satirized American life in his 1873 novel The Gilded Age
- American society has a rotten core covered in gold
- Novelist
- Wrote many short stories
- Twains label stuck
Gilded Age
- term coined by Mark Twain to describe thepost-Reconstruction era which was characterized by afaçade of prosperity
- Lots of growth in the USA
- Exploited workers and immigrants
Conspicuous Consumerism
- purchasing of goods and servicesfor the purpose of impressing others
- Americans become consumers
- More products available at lower prices
- Bought many new products
Mass Culture
-similar cultural patterns in a society as aresult of the spread of transportation, communication,and advertising
Joseph Pulitzer
- Hungarian immigrant who fought in the Civil War
- Active in politics
- Started the newspaper called The World and the Evening World
- Wrote exposés so people would by the papers
William Randolph Hearst
- Wrote Morning Journal
- Wrote exposés like Pulitzer
Horatio Alger
-Wrote about characters who succeeded from hard work
Vaudeville
-type of show, including dancing, singing, andcomedy sketches, that became popular in the late nineteenthcentury
New Immigrant
-Southern and Eastern European immigrantwho arrived in the United States in a great wavebetween 1880 and 1920
