19. The City and Its Workers, 1870

Quiz for Making Historical Arguments: What Happened to Urban Workers’ Standard of Living during the Gilded Age?

Choose the best answer to each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

1. Which of the following was a way that urban workers’ wages differed from farmers’ wages?

Urban workers earned much higher wages than farmers.

Urban workers had more cash for spending.

Farmers earned higher hourly wages.

Farmers were able to save more because of the lower cost of living in rural areas.

2. How did the depressions in 1873 and 1893 impact urban workers?

Their wages momentarily decreased but recovered quickly.

They were able to strike for better working conditions.

Many returned to rural areas.

Some workers faced starvation.

3. What was the work like in urban factories?

The work was easier and safer than farm labor.

The work was boring and repetitive.

Factory work required greater skill and expertise.

Factory bosses mostly left workers alone.

4. How did the diet of American urban and rural workers differ from that of their European counterparts?

American workers had a more ample diet.

American workers had less access to fresh produce.

Americans workers ate more grains than did European workers.

American workers had greater access to safe meats.

5. What was the role of women in urban and rural households?

They worked in factories and sent the money back to their family farms.

They only worked in the fields on rural farms.

They did most of the domestic labor.

They worked in the new service industries in the cities.