The end of the nineteenth century paved the way to the beginning of Progressivism; a time of reforms to change American life. Although politics were changing during this time, many sought to focus public concern on improving living conditions of poor urban communities. Settlement houses, an approach to social reform, was an establishment created by philanthropists whom first lived besides the residents in the communities they directly help. These houses created a plethora of programs to assist poor families by giving them the opportunities they needed for success in their fast evolving world. The settlement houses of the twentieth century, not only changed the lives of the individuals it hosted and the lives of the house staff but the houses …show more content…
also changed the neighborhoods they served. Women’s involvement in community affairs not only helped improve the lives of others but also allowed women to fight for their own rights. One of the most influential women during this era was the founder of the Hull House, Ms. Jane Addams. Janes Addams was born into a wealthy family but after her first-hand account of the poor state of her neighboring communities she made it her mission to help improve their living conditions. In 1889, Addams established the Hull House in the slums of a Chicago community. Addams and her fellow workers at the house greatly benefited from their time as public missionaries. Eric Foner, author of Give Me Liberty, argues that “the efforts of the middle-class women to uplift the poor, and the laboring women to uplift themselves, helped shift the center of gravity of politics towards activist government… under Florence Kelley’s leadership, the National Consumers’ league became the nation’s leading advocate of laws governing the working conditions of women and children.” Women not only wanted to help communities improve housing and living conditions by teaching proper techniques and educating immigrants, they also were given the rare opportunity to be reformers for their own rights by advocating for safer labor laws, sanitation, and protection for working women. The settlement houses did provided many women with work as nurses, educators, cooks and daytime caretakers but also gave many women their voice in social reforms. The establishment of settlement houses proved to help these working ladies become independent and confident young advocates for justice. Although, the working women of the settlement houses greatly benefitted, the women wanted to help improve the lives of others. Immigrant families and individual lives significantly were influenced by the settlement houses established in their urban neighborhoods; settlement houses often represented change and a second chance for many new Americans. Hilda Polacheck, a WPA writer who conducted oral history interviews in Chicago, tells the story of a Russian Jewish father, Jacob and his two children Solly and Rosie who faced difficulties in America and found refuge at a settlement house. Jacob was able to send his children to school for the first time in America and his children wanted to learn the piano however Jacob could barely afford to pay rent but wanted to make his children’s dream come true. “‘Someday I will learn to play,’ Solly said. ‘All sorts of miracles happen in America. Maybe something will happen so that I can learn.’” Solly and Rosie were invited to learn the piano at the Hull house and soon enough they were composing their own pieces, so Jacob decided to buy them their own piano. Unfortunately, Jacob passed away after becoming ill, but he left was able to give his children the dream they always wanted. Settlement houses often provided different social and educational programs to help provide miracles for immigrant families such as Jacob’s family to help them reach their dreams in America. Just one piano class at the Hull House change this family forever and gave a family the opportunity to find happiness and success in America. It may only be one small thing such as a piano lesson that a family needs to change their whole life; settlement houses helped many individuals which collectively helped changed an entire community. Settlement houses improved urban living conditions as whole. Many activist argued government officials and taught families what proper conditions should be and what everyone needs to demand. Jane Addams stated in her piece, The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements (1892): Many of the people living there (great cities) are very poor, the majority of them without leisure or energy for anything but the gain of subsistence. They move often from one wretched lodging to another. They live for the moment side by side, many of them without knowledge of each other, without fellowship, without local tradition or public spirit, without social organization of any kind. Practically nothing is done to remedy this. Addams like other activists, knew that settlement house would close the gap within society and between communities.
Many families and individuals living in industrial poverty spent long hours and worked labor intensive jobs that made time for community affairs and learning American values and way of life difficult. Settlement houses worked to combat issues such as crime, poverty and immigration gaps by providing social services and education to underprivileged and suffering communities. Progressive thinkers believed that if Americans had the right resources for success and could fix their living conditions than they would be able to overcome hardships and seek opportunities. Assimilating into American culture was not easy; the houses helped educate immigrants by providing educational classes on important issues such as sanitation, self-defense, nutrition and literature and services such as daycares, playgrounds, health clinics, public kitchens and baths. Besides programs to help families assimilate into American culture, many houses supported programs that allowed immigrants to share and teach others about their own culture and pay tribute to their own heritage. All these programs changed the way immigrants lived their lives in their communities which ultimately improved living conditions in these
neighborhoods. Settlement houses influenced many aspects of life during the early twentieth century; communities evolved, families and the people who lived and served these communities also grew. The houses changed the way people conducted daily tasks and urged people to stand up for their rights to proper care and living conditions in their communities. Families learned to assimilate into American culture by learning how to care for their families and survive the pressures and hardships in the new world. Settlement house were more than just a place to learn how to cook, clean and read but a place for families, communities and those who served them to learn the importance of social welfare the power to demand reform.
The period of time running from the 1890’s through the early 1930’s is often referred to as the “Progressive Era.” It was a time where names such as J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould and John D. Rockefeller stood for the progress of America and their great contributions to American industry and innovation. This chapter however, has a much darker side. Deplorable working conditions, rampant political corruption and power hungry monopolies and trusts threatened the working class of America and the steady influx of European immigrants hoping to make a better life for themselves and their families. What started as a grass-roots movement pushing for political reform at the local and municipal levels soon began to encompass
Christopher Columbus discovered the America’s for Spain in 1492. The explorers and settlers that settled in Central and South America were mostly Spanish and Portuguese. The English took notice of the Spanish success in the America’s, so they decided to explore the upper part of the America’s, North America, in the late 1500’s.
During the middle to late 1800's, thousands upon thousands of Americans, as well as foreigners, flocked to the mid-western part of the United States. They flocked to this area hoping to gain free or cheap land promised to them by the United States Government. Most of the "pioneers" left cities and factory jobs to venture out into the American prairies and become farmers. They left their homes, not only because the land was either free or cheap, but also because they wanted to leave the hardships of city life. However, as most would find out, prairie life had its' share of hardships, that far out-reached the hardships of city life. Among these hardships were the death of siblings and friends due to starvation and/or hard work. Pioneers also had to face the stresses and burdens of trying to make a living off of the land. Along with these stress's, they had to worry about how to make money off of the land. All of these hardships, as well as others,
The United States is a nation of immigrants but also a nation of Americans, when exactly does it happen that an immigrant becomes an American? Most of the people in the United States came from Europe or their ancestors came from Europe. Many immigrants were poor, day laborers who chose to live in the city. They came to America in hope of a better economic life. Many lived in sections of the city that suffered from severe poverty. They often lived in run down tenement houses that were unsafe. All the while, they clung to the cultures of the “old world” they just left. It was not until the 1880s that things began to change. Jane Addams, a middle class woman, decided to help the impoverished immigrants. She opened a settlement house and she called it Hull House. It was the first settlement house in the United States. She focused on Chicago’s most poverty-stricken area. The Hull House became the social center for immigrants. It offered night school for adults, kindergarten classes, clubs, a public kitchen, an art gallery, a coffeehouse, a gym, a bathhouse and so much more. Hull House helped immigrants become part of the social world in America. It also tried to Americanize the immigrants and encouraged them to assimilate into the American culture. In short, when Jane Addams founded the Hull House she wanted to help immigrants become part of the American culture and she persuaded them to leave the customs of the “old world” in their past.
The numerous problems that the US faced paved way for an era of reform that was directed at enforcing direction and integrity on a society in crisis – The Progressive Movement.
While early 20th century America was an era of great economic advancement and material wealth, the prevalent growth in industry had a profound impact on small, rural communities. An expanding upper class did not signify prosperity for all. Those who were unable to rise in society were left behind, forced to live under harsh environmental conditions as factories polluted rural towns. As detailed by Nick while accompanying Tom to the city one
As the Guilded Age was ending, and the Progressive Era was emerging, most American families had to live with the harsh
U.S. cities experienced rapid growth and change, and also faced new challenges following the end of World War II. The consolidation of ghettos in the inner city and the rise of suburbs are two of the characteristics and problems that consequently arose for U.S. cities. One of the biggest projects created as a solution was the public housing project. These public houses however, although in paper they seemed like a great idea, in practice they actually proved not be such a great project because they brought several tensions and problems to cities and neighborhoods.
In early America, socio-economic class, agriculture, religion and gender played four very important roles in regional distinctions of this newly developing country. Even though agriculture, religion, and gender were extremely important, the biggest factor was socio-economic life. A person’s socio economic class was what determined their life style from a wealth, treatment, and dress style and home, which are major aspects of human life. In Everyday Life in Early America, David Freeman Hawke explains how each of these four factors determined the life style of each early resident of America as well as the overall development of the country in its beginning years to emerge into a growing and improving nation (continue)
After Elizabeth took the throne and became the ruling monarch of England she wanted to relieve the tension between the Protestants and the Catholics. Elizabeth decided on a compromise between the two religions, one that would have characteristics of both, this new religion was called Anglicanism. The factors that caused Elizabeth to make this decision were her personal religious preferences, the views of the Marian Bishops and the opinions given to her by the parliament. However this compromise did have consequences. These include the dissatisfaction from both Protestants and Catholics, The Vestiarian Controversy and the Catholic opposition the settlement.
The communities were built with an abundance of houses that would allow families with all of the same interests to reside as one and work together as community. These communities would have community events to bring the community closer. The citizens of these communities were the typical American families with cars and children that lived in the house with the white picket fence. The citizens of the communities would compete to see who had the best decorated houses and win awards. It kept the community members involved in the community (Hales, Levittown: Documents of an Ideal American Suburb). This type of community helped camouflage the lives of
Compared to people in the twenty-first century, with all their modern conveniences and technological advances, the life of any early-American seems difficult. However, the lives of children were among the most arduous. Linda Pollock states in her book Forgotten Children that between 1660 and 1800 families -and society in general- became more affectionate, child-oriented, and permissive of uniqueness and unstructured time (67). Although this may be true, many other sources depict the lives of children as taxing and oppressive at best. Children of the time were either forced to abandon education for their family contributions, or had to balance school with a full day's work ("Education"). Even when they were not in school or doing manual labor, their day-to-day lives were uncomfortable and harsh (Kids). Social status, as is expected, was a key factor in determining how hard a child's life would be (Murray 9). Although many children at the time had it easier than others they were all asked at an early age to take on adult responsibilities. The lives of all children in 1800 were mundane and difficult due to family and societal expectations for labor, schooling, and maturity.
westward in waves and retreated, and ended with the Dust Bowl and the Depression of
Having set the aims, objectives and research questions in the first chapter, this chapter zooms in to review literature available on the subject of land tenure regularization and its effect on housing investment from different parts of the world with specific reference to cities. The emphasis of this chapter is to analyse the link between land tenure regularization and housing investment in informal settlements. Also, the focus is on securing land rights in informal settlements, since it is widely believed that regularization of informal settlement rights leads to (increased) access to formal finance which subsequently encourages housing investment (Chome and McCall, 2005). The chapter starts with contextual definition of key terms, and then followed by global documentation on the impact of tenure regularization in informal settlement, focusing on the experiences of some selected countries. Since the aim of the research is to investigate the effect of land tenure regularization on informal housing investment and that both the Zambian Local Authorities and the government have intention to regularize informal settlements, lessons learnt from the case study countries will be noted, after which the chapter will be concluded in section 2.6 by way of a summary.
Some people that live in poverty do not have anywhere to call home, others “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world” (Shah 1). “The modern urban household is an extremely expensive thing” (Galbraith 508); this is why we, the people, should provide safe and affordable shelter for families in need of an improved shelter or a shelter at all. A variety of organizations exist to construct homes for low-income individuals. These organizations include both faith-based enterprises and secular groups. In either case, these organizations tend to utilize donated supplies, cash support and volunteer labor to build durable, safe homes for economically disadvantaged individuals and families. One of the most popular organization is an ecumenical Christian ministry, Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity began constructing homes for poor families in 1976. By the end of 2009, the organization constructed over 350,000 homes in 3,000 communities around the world. During the period from its founding through the end of 2009, Habitat for Humanity provided safe, comfortable homes for over 1.75 million people. As you can see, this organization has improved the lives of many and continues to do so. Providing homes for the people in need of a safe shelter will improve the success of society and lead us out of