The Melting Pot

American Life and

Culture at the Turn of

the Century.

The “New” Immigrants

• Why America? Promise of a better life, escape persecution, economic opportunity

• From southern/eastern Europe

• Steerage

• From Ellis Island to the Ghetto

The New Colossusby Emma Lazarus

• Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

• With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

• Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

• A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

• Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

• Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

• Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

• The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

• "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

• With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

• Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

• The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

• Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

• I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Patterns of Immigration

Opposition - Nativism

• Chinese Exclusion – the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

• 1894 – Immigration Restriction League– Required literacy test– Vetoed by President

Grover Cleveland as “illiberal, narrow, and unAmerican”

Urban Planning

> Population Explosion> Cities built horizontally and vertically

- Mass Transit and Skyscrapers> “Neighborhoods” – all needs met> Dealing with the Poor

- Tenements - small, crowded, multi-family housing

Tenement Life

Class Structure

• “Nouveau Riche”• Consumerism and

Conspicuous Consumption

• “Middle Class Values” drive the American Way of Life

• Imitation from one class of another

Education• Expansion of public

schools• Compulsory

education laws• New methods of

teaching (John Dewey)

• Expanded curriculums

Publications

• Pop Culture• Appealing to readers• Joseph Pulitzer and

William Randolph Hearst

• Yellow Journalism

Parks and Things

• City Beautiful Movement• Urban Planning - parks,

public space, attractive Boulevards, sidewalk lifestyle

• 1857 - Frederick Law Olmstead designed Central Park in NYC– “captured nature”

Sports

• Poor still engaged in traditional “uncivilized” activities – cockfighting, drinking, gambling

• Wealthy people turned to newer, more sophisticated leisure activities

• Rise of Sport: Football (Walter Camp), Baseball, Basketball– Played mostly by students– Health and education

• 1) The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.

• 2) The ball may be batted in any direction with one or both hands.

• 3) A player cannot run with the ball, as he must throw it from the spot on which he catches it, with allowance to be made for a man who catches the ball when running at a good speed.

• 4) The ball must be held in or between the hands; the arms or the body must not be used for holding it.

• 5) No shouldering, holding, pushing, tripping or striking in any way the person of an opponent shall be allowed. The first infringement of this rule by any person shall count as a foul, the second shall disqualify him until the next goal is made, or if there was evident intent to injure the person, for the whole of the game, no substitute allowed.

• 6) A foul is striking at the ball with the fist, violation of rules three and four and such described in rule five.

• 7) If either side makes consecutive fouls it shall count a goal for the opponents.

• 8) A goal shall be made when the ball is thrown or batted from the grounds into the basket and stays there, providing those defending the goal do not touch or disturb the goal. If the ball rests on the edge and the opponent moves the basket it shall count as a goal.

• 9) When the ball goes out of bounds it shall be thrown into the field and played by the first person touching it. In case of a dispute the umpire shall throw it into the field. The thrower-in is allowed five seconds and if he holds it longer it shall go to the opponent. If any side persists in delaying the game, the umpire shall call a foul on them.

• 10) The umpire shall be the judge of men, and shall note the fouls, and notify the referee when three consecutive fouls have been made. He shall have power to disqualify men according to rule five.

• 11) The referee shall be the judge of the ball and shall decide when the ball is in play, in-bounds, and to which side it belongs, and shall keep the time. He shall decide when a goal has been made and keep account of the goals with any other duties that are usually performed by a referee.

• 12) The time shall be two fifteen-minute halves, with a five-minute rest between them.

• 13) The side making the most goals in that time shall be declared the winner. In case of a draw the game may, by agreement of the captains, be continued until another goal is made.

Entertainment

• Theater– Shakespeare

• Edwin Booth• Appealed to upper class

($125/ticket)

– Melodramadies• Wealthy cast as the villain

– Vaudeville

• Ragtime Music– Scott Joplin