US History Blog 2

Urbanization, and the Rise of the American Suburb.  At the turn of the 20th century nearly  40% of Americans  lived in cities, and that number continued to climb. Urbanization and the expansion of cities are a hallmark of the 20th century.    As we can see from this graph, the growth experienced during the 1880-1920s in New York was quite intense.  The rate was explosive, but the graph shows that when the bubble finally berst,  levels returned to only slightly above those of the pre boom. Of course such extreme trends are not sustainable, and a normal rate  of growth returned. The forecast for cities looks very different in  2021 than it did in 1921.  The difference is found in a  mixture of places. On a  global level  urban centers are predicted to increase and host most of the world's population. However, these numbers are pre pandemic,  indeed the pandemic era has not been friendly to Americans urban centers. Now,...

  Immigration, a generational triumph and failure.  America has long been known as the  melting pot of the world . A place with a national motto of   "e pluribus unum" meaning 'out of many, one'  In the early 1900s America  experienced a boom of immigration. People from across the world, but especially Europe came to America for work and to build a better life for themselves away from the shadow of the old world.  While America is still a large acceptor of immigrants, some things have changed since the era of immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Immigration once held an honorable view in the minds of immigrants, and American school children, including myself are taught that the immigration process is full of pomp and circumstance. We see  photos of well dressed families on large ocean liners with the  Statue of Liberty  in the background. While it is true immigrants of that time were sometimes subject to egregious ac...

  'The Age(s) Of Miracles'  This video, released by Syracuse University, details the technological advancements that took place in America from 1850-1910, and explains their impact on the nations industry. Within that 40 year span, such inventions as the telephone, phonograph and electric lamps became a part of everyday life.  Cars and phones lead to explosive growth of cities and enriched the lives of the people of the period. Currently, we find ourselves at the close of the opening quarter of the 21st century. And our technology and industries look drastically different now as they did at this centuries beginning. This is because we are in the middle of a  digital revolution . Today our lives practically belong to the iphone, and yet just over 10 years ago, the iphone was still in development. Just as referenced in the video with the first telephone leading to increased urbanization, the release of iphone has changed everything from work and education  to comm...

  The early 20th Century in America is known as the progressive era. The  progressives  were a political and social reform group that sought to make American society a better place to live and work. They aimed to do this by holding corporations accountable and exposing the corruption commonly seen within government at the time.  As seen in the political cartoon, corporations at this time were unregulated and often openly interfered in the legislative process in order to assure their needs were catered to.    While the progressives of the early 20th century passed landmark legislation which helped solve the problem of corporate hands in politics, nearly a quarter into the 21st century, the love affair between congress and corporate dollars is alive and well.                  The cartoon above shows how modern politicians claim to be against corporations involvement in politics while at the same time demanding...