DOCUMENT PROJECT 18

Class and Leisure in the American City

Few historical events altered the American landscape like the rise of the city at the turn of the twentieth century. Population demographics changed as increasing numbers of immigrants, primarily from southern and eastern Europe, poured into urban areas. These immigrants brought their own traditions and customs, increasing the diversity of city life. Urban dwellers also participated in new forms of leisure and consumerism. Amusement parks like New York City’s Coney Island, nickelodeons, dance halls, and sporting events such as boxing matches became national pastimes.

The new cities accentuated class differences at the same time that they offered ways for people of different classes to share social spaces. The working classes flocked to take part in new, inexpensive forms of urban leisure. Wealthier people sought to distance themselves from the working people they often saw at Coney Island and other city attractions. Instead, they attended symphony concerts and the opera and socialized in exclusive clubs. This world of urban amusements also disrupted traditional gender roles. Many working-class women took advantage of the anonymity of the city to ignore gender norms and express their independence. Some reformers gasped at areas where men and women could congregate freely.

The following documents illuminate the social and cultural changes that occurred in the twentieth-century city. As you read, consider how gender, class, ethnicity, and the urban environment shaped the writers or the subjects of these primary sources.