Due to industrialization, America moved to the city. The sudden influx of millions of poor immigrants led to the formation of slums in U.S. cities. These new city dwellers lived in tenement buildings, often with entire families living together in tiny one-room apartments and sharing a single bathroom with other families on the floor. Tenements generally were filthy, poorly ventilated, and poorly lit, making …show more content…
As growing number of Americans went to the theater to be entertained, still more went to the baseball park or sports arena. Prizefighting had long been a disreputable amusement for lower class Americans but during 1880s it became an organized sport, attracting national audience second only to that of baseball. By 1860s baseball had become a major draw among city dwellers. Not long after the professional Cincinnati Red Stockings began barnstorming around the country, the National League was formed (1876) and the rules of the modern game took shape. As daily work became more sedentary, especially for white collar workers, Americans spent more time in physical recreation. At collegiate level, young men took up football, basketball and rowing while young women took baseball, basketball and …show more content…
The partisan category included those men in either the Republican or Democratic Parties. The voluntarism category was made up of a variety of women’s organizations, labor unions, and farmer’s groups. The movement to suppress alcohol was reborn in 1873-1874 as the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. By 1890 it had 150,000 adult members and another 50,000 members in its young women’s auxiliary. It was the largest women’s protest movement in American history up to that time. By the turn of the century Americans had become comfortable with the notion that government should actively regulate the currency and protect American commerce and workers from foreign competition. They hesitantly accepted that government should also regulate interstate commerce and restrain the powers of monopolies. These issues and civil service reform dominated party politics. There are two standard themes in the political history of the late nineteenth century. One theme derides the era for its corruption and favoritism. The other heralds the era of limited government and unregulated markets. Both characterizations are accurate to an extent. Government in the late nineteenth century was changing. It was in the process of becoming more centralized and becoming more regulatory. The industrialization of the economy as well as the changes that it brought with it caused many Americans to look for