The Gilded Age

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The Gilded Age was a time of change, and hardly anything was changed more than America’s social landscape. With the shifting from a largely rural population to an urban one, it was only fit that American social life change with it. Thanks to the practically forced cultural mixing due to the huge amounts of immigrants arriving in the states, cultural variety flourished during this time. With this intense cultural development underway, it is only natural that most of American life changed. Specifically, American churches, schools, and family life underwent a drastic change. Thanks to the introduction of new cultures, such as the newly arrived Catholics, provided a new and expanding religious landscape with over 150 different denominations. In…show more content…
Thanks to the dumbbell tenement, numerous families could live in cramped spaces with very little wiggle room. In most circumstances, one would think that such close living quarters would cause tighter relations between neighbors, but due to the huge population of the cities it was dangerous to let your child wander about. This changed the family dynamic to a much more tightly knit one to fit into the industrialized, urban cities.Along with being more tightly knit, families began producing less children as they became more wage reliant and less farm reliant. A large family was detrimental in an urbanized environment where one depends on wages due to the larger strain on income, as opposed to a rural setting where a larger family meant more hands to help out. This is yet another example of how urbanization and industrialization changed the family dynamic. Unlike in a smaller scale village, cities were much more dangerous and intimidating, so socialization was condensed down into specific places like clubs or opera houses, like the Italian opera houses and mini-theatres in the Little Italy area of NYC. In addition, with the huge demand for extra labor, many families found themselves putting their children and wives to work. This was a major change from pre-industrialized America where…show more content…
The changes in the church landscape brought about a very important overall change in the American culture. The changes brought from the newly immigrated Catholics and Jews helped shape the church system, along with liberal protestants and leaders in the church. The rise of religious organizations such as the YMCA and YWCA also helped bring about changes from the rural america’s church system. In addition, the school and education system saw many much needed advancements. The rise of land grant colleges from the Morrill Act helped provide many Americans with higher education, and leaders such as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois fought for proper black education. Philanthropists like James Buchanan Duke and John D Rockefeller also greatly assisted in the funding of these new colleges. With access to these changed educational and church systems as well as coping with urbanized America, the standard family dynamic changed as well. The tight living spaces and wage dependence caused families to be much smaller and more tightly knit. In addition, the dangerous city limited socialization to certain places. Not only was socialization limited, but the long work hours brought in a need for day cares, yet again changing the standard family dynamic to cope with urban and industrial landscapes.In whole, the industrialization and urbanization of Gilded Age America caused a

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