America’s History: Printed Page 634
| MAKING CONNECTIONS | Recognize the larger developments and continuities within and across chapters by answering these questions. |
ACROSS TIME AND PLACE In Chapter 17 we explored the activities of agrarian reformers and labor unions who protested the impact of industrialization on their lives. In Chapters 18 and 19 we considered the work of middle-class and urban reformers who sought to address some of the same conditions. Chronologically, their work overlapped: note, for example, that Jane Addams founded Hull House in 1889, just as the Farmers’ Alliance was reaching a peak of activism and workers had organized the Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor. Imagine a conversation among the following individuals: a rural man or woman active in the Farmers’ Alliance; a skilled workman who joined the American Federation of Labor; an urban antiprostitution reformer; and a middle-class volunteer who worked in a settlement house. How would each have described the problems caused by industrialization? What remedies would each suggest? On what points would they have disagreed? Can you imagine any issues on which they might have worked together? What does this suggest about the opportunities and limits of alliance building, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, across class and geographic lines?
VISUAL EVIDENCE Imagine that you have just arrived in a big American city in the early 1900s. Look carefully at all the images in this chapter and group them under two categories: (1) problems and dangers you might have encountered as a new urban resident; (2) sights and opportunities that might have been appealing and exciting to you as a newcomer. On balance, do you think you would have wanted to stay, or turn around and head back home? Why? What factors might have shaped your decision?