The scale of suffering was so massive that private charity couldn't cope. Churches ran out of food to distribute. Settlement houses were overwhelmed. This crisis convinced many reformers that systemic problems required systemic (government) solutions.
Old Assumptions vs. New Realization
Old Assumptions:
Poverty as moral failure
Charity as individual benevolence
Self-help and personal virtue
Government intervention inappropriate
New Realization:
Poverty is systemic
Individual solutions are inadequate
Structural causes require structural solutions
Collective action necessary
🔑 Important Shift
Urban reform grows from structural crisis, not moral awakening alone.
Part II
The Rise of Social Science and "Knowing the City"
Cities become laboratories
Reformers Adopt Tools from Science
Cities become objects of systematic study:
Sociology, economics, statistics, anthropology
Neighborhood surveys and mapping
Data collection on poverty, housing, health
Poverty reframed as a social condition, not a personal defect
×
The Rise of Social Science
In the late 1800s, Americans began applying scientific methods to social problems.
Key Disciplines:
Sociology: Study of social structures, institutions, and behaviors
Economics: Analysis of production, distribution, and inequality
Statistics: Quantifying social conditions—poverty rates, mortality, housing density
Anthropology: Understanding cultural practices and immigrant communities
Methods:
Surveys and questionnaires
Statistical analysis
Mapping and spatial analysis
Ethnographic observation
Why This Mattered:
Social science provided "objective" data to justify reform. Instead of moral appeals, reformers could present statistics, maps, and reports showing the extent of urban problems. This made reform seem rational, scientific, and inevitable.
Key Thinkers and Ideas
Richard T. Ely — "Younger Economics" and government intervention
Thorstein Veblen — Critique of conspicuous consumption
Henry George — Land, inequality, and Progress and Poverty
×
Richard T. Ely (1854-1943)
Founder of the American Economic Association and advocate for government intervention in the economy.
Key Ideas:
Rejected laissez-faire economics
Argued that government should regulate business and protect workers
Supported labor unions and social legislation
Influenced Progressive Era policy
Ely represented the "new economics" that challenged classical liberal assumptions about free markets and individual responsibility.
×
Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929)
Economist and sociologist famous for The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899).
Key Concept: Conspicuous Consumption
Veblen argued that the wealthy consumed luxury goods not for utility but to display status—"conspicuous consumption." This was wasteful and socially harmful.
Critique of Industrial Society:
Inequality was structural, not natural
The "leisure class" extracted wealth without producing value
Industrial capitalism created artificial scarcity and waste
Veblen's critique influenced Progressive reformers and later socialist thinkers.
×
Henry George (1839-1897)
Journalist and economist who wrote Progress and Poverty (1879), one of the best-selling books of the era.
Central Argument:
Economic progress created poverty because land values increased with development, enriching landowners while impoverishing workers. Solution: a "single tax" on land values to capture unearned wealth and redistribute it.
Influence:
Inspired labor activists, socialists, and reformers
Influenced Progressive Era taxation debates
Provided intellectual foundation for critiquing inequality
Progress and Poverty sold millions of copies and shaped reform thinking across the political spectrum.
🔑 Core Idea
To govern the city, reformers believe they must first understand it.
Part III
Settlement Houses as Laboratories of Reform
Not charities—experiments
Settlement Houses as Experiments
Settlement houses were not charities—they were experiments in urban reform and social research.
Key institutions:
Hull House (Jane Addams, Chicago)
Henry Street Settlement (Lillian Wald, New York)
South End House (Boston)
×
Hull House (1889-2012)
Founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in Chicago, Hull House became the most famous settlement house in America.
What Was It?
A community center located in a poor immigrant neighborhood (primarily Italian and Eastern European Jewish). Educated, middle-class reformers lived at Hull House ("settlement" = settling in the neighborhood) and worked with residents.
Activities:
Education: English classes, citizenship training, kindergarten
Arts & Culture: Theater, music, art studios
Social Services: Day care, health clinic, employment bureau
Research: Surveys of neighborhood conditions, published as Hull House Maps and Papers (1895)
Advocacy: Lobbying for labor laws, housing reform, child labor restrictions
Significance:
Hull House combined service, research, and political activism. It trained a generation of social workers and reformers who went on to shape Progressive policy at city, state, and federal levels.
What Made Settlement Houses New
Located inside immigrant neighborhoods
Staffed largely by educated women
Combined:
Education
Social research
Political advocacy
Cultural exchange
×
Women and Settlement Work
Settlement houses were dominated by women reformers—educated, often college-trained women who couldn't access traditional careers (law, medicine, business) because of gender discrimination.
Why Women?
Women's colleges (Vassar, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley) produced educated graduates with few career options
Settlement work was seen as "appropriate" for women (caring, nurturing, domestic sphere extended to community)
Settlement houses offered meaningful work and autonomy
Key Figures:
Jane Addams (Hull House): Nobel Peace Prize winner, social theorist
Lillian Wald (Henry Street Settlement): Founded public health nursing
Florence Kelley (Hull House resident): Led fight against child labor, became chief factory inspector for Illinois
Impact:
Settlement work became a pathway for women into public life, expertise, and political influence despite exclusion from formal politics.
Crucial Reframing
🔑 Important Distinction
Settlement workers did not aim to erase immigrant culture—they aimed to mediate between old worlds and new systems.
This was different from "Americanization" that demanded total assimilation.
Hull House
IMAGE PLACEHOLDER Dimensions: 1000x650px
Search terms:
"Hull House Chicago historical photograph"
"Jane Addams Hull House interior"
"Hull House children's activities"
"Hull House courtyard 1900s"
Suggested sources: University of Illinois Chicago Library, Library of Congress
Part IV
Women, Reform, and Public Authority
Reform as a pathway to political power
Urban Reform Expands Women's Public Roles
Women excluded from formal politics (couldn't vote in most states until 1920)
Reform offers alternative pathways to authority
Maternalist language justifies women's activism:
Protection of children
Public health
Education
Moral uplift
×
Maternalism as Political Strategy
"Maternalism" was a rhetorical strategy that justified women's public activism by extending traditional gender roles.
The Logic:
Women were naturally suited to protect children, care for the sick, and maintain moral standards. Therefore, women should have authority over public policy related to:
Child welfare and labor laws
Public health and sanitation
Education and playgrounds
Housing and food safety
Temperance and moral reform
The Strategy:
By framing their activism as an extension of motherhood rather than a challenge to gender roles, women reformers could claim authority without directly threatening male political power.
The Outcome:
Maternalist rhetoric opened doors for women into public health, social work, education policy, and eventually electoral politics. But it also reinforced gender stereotypes and limited women's political vision.
Examples of Women's Reform Work
Playground movement
Child labor reform
Housing codes and tenement regulation
Public health advocacy (visiting nurses, milk stations)
Pure food and drug laws
×
The Playground Movement
Women reformers led campaigns to create public playgrounds in urban neighborhoods.
The Problem:
Children in tenement districts played in dangerous streets, alleys, and industrial areas. High rates of injury and death.
The Solution:
Reformers argued that cities should provide safe, supervised play spaces. This would:
Reduce child injuries
Keep children off streets
Provide exercise and recreation
"Americanize" immigrant children through play
The Result:
By 1920, most American cities had public playground systems. This was an early example of government providing recreational services—an idea that seemed radical at the time.
🔑 Key Insight
Urban reform becomes a back door into political power for women.
Part V
The Social Gospel and Moral Reform
Religion adapts to the industrial city
The Social Gospel Movement
The Social Gospel reinterpreted Christianity for the industrial age:
Sin located in systems, not just souls
Christianity applied to labor, housing, and poverty
Focus shifts from individual salvation to social justice
Ministers preach environmental causation and collective responsibility
×
The Social Gospel Movement
A Protestant movement (roughly 1880s-1920s) that reinterpreted Christian theology to address industrial capitalism's social problems.
Core Beliefs:
Kingdom of God on Earth: Christians should build a just society here and now, not just prepare souls for heaven
Structural Sin: Evil exists in social systems (poverty, inequality), not just individual hearts
Social Salvation: Saving souls requires reforming society
Key Figures:
Walter Rauschenbusch: Baptist minister who wrote Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), arguing that Jesus's message was fundamentally about social justice
Washington Gladden: Congregationalist minister who supported labor unions and criticized corporate power
Impact:
The Social Gospel provided moral legitimacy for Progressive reform, labor rights, and eventually the New Deal. It linked religious authority to social justice, making reform seem morally necessary.
The Political Implications
🔑 Important Connection
The Social Gospel links moral authority to state action.
Religion shifts from salvation to social justice, providing moral foundation for government intervention.
Part VI
Toward a Pluralistic Urban Society
Living with difference
By 1920, the City Has Changed American Identity
Immigrants, reformers, laborers, and elites coexist uneasily
No single cultural norm dominates
Pluralism replaces assimilation as lived reality
×
Cultural Pluralism
The idea that multiple cultures, languages, and traditions can coexist within one society rather than being forced to assimilate to a single dominant culture.
In Cities by 1920:
Ethnic neighborhoods with distinct cultures (Little Italy, Polish district, Jewish Lower East Side)
Multiple languages spoken in streets, shops, churches
Ethnic associations, newspapers, theaters
No single "American" culture but a patchwork of communities
The Tension:
Some Americans celebrated pluralism as enriching. Others demanded "100% Americanism" and aggressive assimilation (especially during WWI). This tension continues throughout the 20th century.
Key Thinker:
Horace Kallen (1915) coined "cultural pluralism" as an alternative to the "melting pot" metaphor. He argued America should be like an orchestra—different instruments (cultures) creating harmony while maintaining distinctiveness.
🔑 Key Tension
Pluralism does not mean equality—but it does mean permanence.
Closing Synthesis
A Turning Point in American Thought
Urban Reform as a Turning Point
Society becomes an object of study
Government intervention becomes legitimate
Expertise begins to matter
The foundations of Progressivism are laid
Bridge Backward and Forward
Backward: Urban crisis made reform unavoidable
Forward: Progressive Era reform builds directly on these urban experiments
Key Takeaway
🔑 Remember This
Urban reform did not "fix" the city—but it permanently changed how Americans thought about responsibility, governance, and social life.
Society became something that could be studied, understood, and improved.
Lecture Prep Reading List
(Instructor Reference)
Henry George — Progress and Poverty Foundational critique of inequality and land-based wealth
Jane Addams — Democracy and Social Ethics Essential for understanding settlement houses as moral and democratic experiments
Thorstein Veblen — The Theory of the Leisure Class Sharp cultural critique of consumption and status in industrial society
Lillian Wald — Saving the City Window into public health, settlement work, and women's reform activism
Christopher H. Evans — The Social Gospel in America Useful synthesis of religion's role in urban reform and Progressive politics
The Rise of Social Science
In the late 1800s, Americans began applying scientific methods to social problems.
Key Disciplines:
Methods:
Why This Mattered:
Social science provided "objective" data to justify reform. Instead of moral appeals, reformers could present statistics, maps, and reports showing the extent of urban problems. This made reform seem rational, scientific, and inevitable.