- mid 19th century, political organizations fought for control of public spaces as sites of assembly and expression, acting collectively in the public view resembled/embodied “the people”

- contrast to voting as a private/conscientious act, civic celebrations, public executions, theater performances, riots
- embodiment of a democratic society 

19th century - poor rioters, way of discrediting an action, people participating had no legitimate grievance or standing to act or speak on behalf of the city, don't own property, destroying things for their own selfish purposes 

- riots got larger, change in context of world of strangers; more lethal, more fatalities, trigger fed/state response

mid 19th century, growth, universal manhood suffrage; 1st quarter of 1800s states expanded voting eligibility—previously had property requirements, now all white men could vote

associated with Andrew Jackson (1827), beneficiary of universal manhood suffragechanged election campaign process

- emergence of parties in 1830s, Whigs & Democrats, rigid adherence to party loyalty, new ideas about the rights of man, parties giving shape to allegiance

- bigger campaigns, mass public spectator sport, parades

- allowed people to feel included rather than feeling their vote doesn’t matter

- voting in streets, heavy drinking, violence, tickets produced by party, no privacy

- one dimension of urban politics

- immigrant runners, offered aid to fob immigrants, local gang members, physically forced people to vote for or not vote at all

- Link of street fighting (male recreation, popular entertainment) to party politics

- symbolized importance of violence in municipal elections, both parties employ them

- Fraternal order in 1790, NY, distribute food/fuel to the poor; political machine

- Cater to immigrants-->strong base of support dominated by immigrants

- emerged tammany political party, catered to immigrants in era of mass democracy, had strong base of support dominated by immigrants, pioneered process of tapping, followed this model, put up candidate as prominent business man, often immigrants typically men who established form of all male recreation (fire men, saloon keeping, bare knuckle fighting)below them foot soldiers

Boss Tweed, mid 19th century, municipal gov enrich political bosses. 50s 60s city appropriations put in hands of corrupt leaders like Tweed, final tab of court was 12.5 million dollars, much of this money went to construction of his political property, got some of it, lavish properties, held many important offices at the same time, 1871 led his indictment, died in prison 1878, NY style machine politics 

opponents - vigilantes (largely middle class native folks), formed committees, respectable middle class men and women seeking to bring order, punish public offenders, organized legal violence; targets - politically corrupt officials and party members

• mid-19th century became a distinct sphere of human experience
• Block of time, realm of activity that was separate from the world of work
• Organized around money exchange - spent money on material goods, supported businesses

• Function and characteristics changed throughout the 19th century
• Previously had close ties to home, run by women
• Changed to male space, places where aspiring politicians garner respect of voters
• Saloon keepers were ward leaders, relied on politicians to block temperance movement
• Controlled by big organizations but local patrons saw it as local institution
• Code of reciprocity
• Served many functions - could cash checks, get credit, etc.

• Men who drink together were expected to share things (treating, jokes, favors, cash, etc.)
• Treated purchases as ritually obligatory. Buying rounds of drinks as a source of honor.

• Hyer v. Sullivan (19th century) marked the beginning of modern spectator sports
• Saloons were important in popularization of sports
• Watching and following - emergence of a new sports culture
• Sports became part of larger process of sense-making (allow for shared interests)
• Characterized by:
• Formal organization
• Standardized rules
• Competition that is meaningful beyond local circles
• Highly differentiated roles among participants
• Interest in records and statistics

• 1811-1856 bare-knuckle fighter
• Irish-Catholic immigrant
• Knocked out by Hyer

• 1849 Marked beginning of modern spectator sports - urbanized celebrities
• Dawn of an era for bare-knuckle fighting, epicenters NYC and SF
• All over urban American people awaited results
• Feuds represented larger social divisions
• Became broadly accessible topic of male conversation

• 1831-1878 Irish bare-knuckle fighter
• Huge gambler, founded Saratoga Racetrack
• Politician, served 2 terms in Congress from NY (backed by Tammany)

• 1845 First organization governing US baseball - reflected baseball’s urban expansion
• Formal rules for previously informal game

• 1857 
• Monitor development of the game, minimize disputes
• Intercity All-Star Game
• Epicenter in NY - home of major sports journals

• 1876 Replaced National Association of Baseball Players
• Clubs - larger urban fraternal organization that cultivated baseball playing
• Homosocial hanging out
• Identified with bachelor culture, celebration of fraternal sociability
• By 1870s became commercialized - professional athletes, media interests, stadiums

• 1831 American weekly newspaper published in NYC
• Aimed for an upper-class readership made up largely of sportsmen
• Devoted to horse-racing, eventually covered all

• Changing definition:
• 18th century - goes to theater, drank, brothels
• 19th century - mixed together fooling around and athletics
• 20th century - involved in sports

• The idea emerges that a city ought to protect the safety of its citizens and their property.
• Armies of uniformed men (police, fire fighters city workers) created to enforce order. Their creation is a contentious issue.
• The emergence of a standing army raised serious political questions; it brought up the question of who is in control of the city. Police conflicts raised questions of authority.
• Specific instance: in 1857 NYC creates a metropolitan policing district as the mayor refuses to accept the presumably state-run municipal police force
• political urban power depended on force

• Contention and conflict between disparate police forces

• In 1863: deadliest and most violent instance of civil unrest in US history at that point: against blacks and Republicans...
• Conscription Act: $300 bounty allows one to escape being drafted for the union side in the civil war. Poor immigrants see this as a way of targeting poor folks for draft. They aren’t very happy about it–poor people being sent away for the sake of slaves, who they are not inclined to help. So it is a class issue and also an issue of race and anti-abolitionism
• Massive riot forms, an “attack from within”–begins on a Monday wherein people leave their jobs and surround and systematically destroy the draft office. (burning it to the ground) riot persists for four days is extremely violent.
• metropolitan police were the symbol of the republicans
• rioters went after the NY times, they plundered the homes of the wealthy and philanthropic places, and they attacked abolitionists and blacks.
• NYC is democratic city in a union state. Largely anti-abolition. At one point the mayor suggest seceding and maintaining trade with south and north. They were unsatisfied with the republican war, they did not approve of a war whose purpose was to end slavery.

• In a particularly egregious act, rioters burn and ransack the colored orphan asylum: indicative of black people being primary targets during the riot, and of the blind frenzy of hate toward them. A pogrom, as it progresses some of those who originally support it lose faith and help to end it.
• represents the vicious targeting of an ethnic group. African Americans suffered brutal murders and beatings which drove many of them out of the city.
• In the end the Union army has to intercede post-Gettysburg, occupies the city and finally stops it. 100 die all in all. Under control by Friday. “Attack from without”. To resolve things the city pays the 300 fee for those who do not want to go to war.
• Shows how federal government uses military force to maintain systematic control of cities. Also shows how cities are vulnerable to urban disorder.

• On Oct 8, 1871, A fire breaks out in a barn in Chicago and quickly spreads throughout the city. After 2 months of drought things are all kinds of dry. City is built out of wood largely too. Kindling.
• 300 die, 100,000 homeless (1/3 of the city), entire downtown and 28 streets were destroyed. $200mil in damages. Kind of a setback.
• News of it spreads everywhere. Entire town of Hashtigo Wisconsin burns to the ground the same day, way more deadly, but Chicago is what people care about. Few people got visual perceptions of the fire so many fantastical pictorial representations of fire emerged in the news.
• (chelsea) National readership emerged and the fire propelled into great meaning because:
• Fire was an everyday occurrence; common sublime spectacles. This represents the dramatic vulnerability of the city
• Fires were symbols of urban disorder and it was regarded as a manifestation of larger Urban ills: (the idea that the fire was a deliberate act was very popular among the people)
• The legend of Mrs. O'reilly. This Anti-Irish propaganda story circulated instantly without any evidence. People blamed the incompetent Irish women (mrs.Oreily) for the fire.
• Others believed the fire was an act of political terrorism to punish the wealthy
• There are 2 major fires every day in the year before. Big presence in city life. Reminder of vulnerability, transience, interdependence of city life.
• The fire was a turning point for Chicago; it was a symbol of renewed civic service and advertised that Chicago was a good opportunity for investment. (Booster literature) Chicago’s population increased rapidly and Chicago’s reconstruction happened overnight
• land values became higher than ever after the fire

• Politically motivated arsonists. Probably blamed for more fires than they really start. Fire viewed not as natural disaster or result of crowding but the manifestation of larger urban ills, of sketchy revolutionaries. Fires symbols of urban disorder and so political dissent. Cities in constant threat of incendiary arson

• Ex. The legend of Miss O’Reilly: 0 evidence, but the story catches on. Allegedly Miss O'Reilly starts great Chicago fire by milking her cow at night. Seems silly and innocuous but may contain anti-Irish nativist sentiment. Many such tales appear immediately after fires, explaining their origins, likely to involve Incendiaries as firestarters.
• The way the fire circulated in the media made it famous.
• Instant fire histories combined themes of sensationalist mystery journalism and the literature of boosterism
• the texts allow people to safely enter into the fire

• headed the “Sheridan occupation” (a response to the Great Chicago fire attempting to restore law & order--martial law)
• for 2 weeks--regulated prices, controlled movement of people around the city, curfew
• for many, this was a solution to what the fire represented (threat of immigrants, class conflict, etc.); and so order through military made sense

• distributed relief/money to those displaced by the Great Chicago Fire (as the municipal government was not trusted with this task)
• acted sort of like an NGO--composed of merchants & manufacturers who took on the task of deciding who deserved aid and who did not
• took relief effort out of the control of democratic politics/corrupt political process
• all in all, a successful organization

• By the second half of the 19th century, the outward expansion of urban sprawl began alarming city-dwellers.
• worried about lack of civic space (kind of space that elites associated with European cities, such as small parks and pleasure gardens) & absence of trees/grass/natural landscape
• creation of rural cemeteries preceded the movement to create parks--widely regarded as precursors to municipal parks
• rural cemeteries lied at outskirts of large American cities & were presented to city-dwellers as appropriate places for dignified sociability (appeal was in the grass)
• ex: Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA (1831), Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia (1836)
• But as city was expanding, it became more and more difficult to feel like one was leaving urban world behind when going to these rural cemeteries. (also...dead people--mid 19th century death was more prevalent than birth) & with the 2nd half of the 19th century came the movement to create city parks

• 2nd half of the 19th century--motion to create city parks
• required the removal of large tracts of urban land from real estate market
• many were excited by this challenge because standing in the way of growing sprawl was seen as noble/moral/dignified
• would also enhance value of property in immediate vicinity of the parks
• opened in 1859
• 1856 republicans picked the place for the park = center of the island
• Frederick Law Olmsted & Calvert Vaux won an 1857 design competition to create Central Park
• drew on formal landscape of European parks
• called for construction of a park with few visible links to the city--not intended to be integrated into the city; should be close enough but urban life was not to characterize it
• not part of grid plan, they wanted people to forget the grid while in the park
• all evidence of urban disorder and commerce were concealed
• roads within the park were curved; this ran contrary to urban design, the curves brought nature and rural life into the park
• by 2nd half of 20th century--parks weren’t counterpoints to cities; BUT during this time, parks (& Central Park) were supposed to be a counterpoint, relying on the idea that nature was a civilizing force
• Central Park was supposed to be the “lungs” of the city
• kicked out Seneca Village (black neighborhood from 82nd-86th between 7th & 8th Ave.)
• after opening, heavily regulated experience (mostly middle & upper class frequented)
• no indecent language, team sports, etc.
• opposite of a place where constraints of city life was lifted--> was really a place where one would find constraints & avoid the chaos of the city streets

• along with Calvert Vaux, won the 1857 competition to design Central Park
• submitted a design for Outside Lands in SF that was ultimately rejected for a more NY-looking park
• considered the father of modern landscape in the US
• designed US capital grounds in DC, Stanford campus
• the more public champion for parks & park movements (compared to Vaux)

• contributed more to design of Central Park (with the parkways?)
• later hired by Chicago to create a series of small parks after the Great Chicago Fire

• African American neighborhood from 82nd-86th streets between 7th & 8th Aves. that was kicked out in order to build Central Park
• after 1825 blacks started purchasing land and by the 1840’s the irish immigrants moved in.
• urban observers saw it as another Five Points, as there was horrifying race mixing (Irish moved in after a while) Referred to as the “Nigar Village”
• Central Park ultimately displaced 1600 people (overwhelmingly immigrants & African Americans).. most without compensation

• not permitted until after 1877 (& not permitted on a regular basis until after 1884)
• by 1870’s park use became more of an urban open space
• represented an end to the highly regulated city park, as parks began being used for music, sports etc.
• museums were eventually put at both ends of Central Park as well

• at the beginning of 1855, there was very little park land or trees/grass/gardens-->people began calling for the creation of a park
• Frederick Law Olmsted suggested a series of pleasure gardens around the Fillmore district using native California trees, but his idea was rejected in favor of a more NY park (to rival Central Park)
• 1863--began building park in Outside Lands under William Hammond Hall
• non-indigenous plant life/ water stretching from outside
• but whereas Central Park succeeded in being the center of its city, Golden Gate Park failed to do so

November 9, 1872: 14 killed in Boston, caused by an

epizootic (epidemic with animals)every horse dead (few horses actually died but all got   

sick) from outbreak of equine flu

o   Fire department paralyzed by shut down in transportation because no healthy horses = much more devastating than would’ve been

o   Epizootic started in Toronto in September, spread as far down as Charleston

Urban horses vulnerable because lived in small, unclean stalls = breeding ground for disease

• the epidemic was tragic to the cities; the economy shutdown because of the cities dependency on horses
• all cities of north america experienced the flu

• First recorded “traffic jam” takes place in 1823 in NYC. People line up for miles in carriages in order to see a horse race. Quite funny because people gridlock in stifling presumably horse-odor-inundated conditions in order to see beautiful thoroughbred horses running freely. Basically indicative of how many transportation-related issues we attribute to the automobile already existed with horse-drawn technology. the infrastructures were already in place.

First form of fixed-route transit –

o   2 benches

o   12-20 passengers

o   Abraham Brower 1827

o   Stagecoach line on Broadway

o   About 12.5 cents/ride

o   1829: regular service

o   1833: 8 omnibuses in NYC, mid-1830s conspicuous feature of US big city life by bus companies on fixed-route = widespread

Made city increasingly stranger friendly, expanded distances able to travel, cities grow = less navigable by foot,increased need for transit

Outskirts = place where poorest lived = reverse, outskirt where elites live and poor concentrated closer to center
Squatter settlements, less desirable urban outposts, couldn’t afford to live in city
1815-1820 – affluent urbanites relocate homes further away from center of production/commerce
New forms of mass transit enables commuting in middle 1/3 of 19th century
Fashionable areas to live within city limits but distant to city centers, crowded-ness
Brooklyn, NY – began as suburb, more affordable/better land, can conduct life in city (separate from Manhattan until 1898)

o   1898 – third largest city in US (behind NY and Chicago) enabled by ferry

o   City grew as ferry service grew

o   Ferry = frequent and affordable à live in Brooklyn and work/leisure in NY

o   “commute” = term from ferry, “to reduce,” pay less because travel frequently on ferry = monthly pass

Massive public and private investment in railway lines and laying/paving new streets, construction of parkways built for private carriages encouraging spread of residents to fashionable neighborhoods further away from city’s core
Post Civil War – park way suburbs (as we know them today)

• U.S. was a popular destination for immigrants because of lax immigration policies and high industrial wages
• continued stream of European immigrants provided much of the labor power--resided disproportionately in cities
• 1880-1924 new wave immigrants much larger. character= non, Protestant, many Catholics, Poland, Italian Peninsula, Canada, Austria Hungarian, Jews from West part of Russian Empire, Orthodox Christians-Greece and the Balkans, Syrians, Japanese, Mexicans, Eastern Europeans
• difference from first wave in a regional sense- mostly South-eastern
• German and Irish were still coming in large #s
• compounded problems of social change
• increased population in North and Midwest
• increased proportion of people living in cities
• larger cities continued to be dominated by immigrants and children of immigrants
• widened gap between protestant nation and non-protestant urban population
• sub-ethnic enclaves--traditions of the “Old World”
• perceived as “new”

• Like the 1st wave, were overwhelmingly non protestant. Different regions. Lots of catholics in the 2nd wave-canada, Austria-hugary, Italy,
• Also Jews-came from western parts of the Russian empire and from Poland and eastern Europe.
•  Designation of the term refers primarily from southern and eastern Europe as opposed to the west quadrant of Europe. The primary distinction is really the regional one between northwestern Europe and south eastern Europe. The difference should not be exaggerated. Secondly, the larger impact of the wave was to reinforce and compound the patterns of social change associated with the so called first wave of immigrants. Increased the proportion of Americans population living in the north and Midwest.
• The new immigrants had the effect of increasing the proportion that lived in the cities.
• New immigration enforces and compounds. Foreign immigrants provide major support both in politics and nationally.
•  Settled at a higher rate and added to the American metropolis. Widened the gap between the protestant nation and a largely non protestant urban population especially in Cleveland, Buffalo, Chicago-catholics achieved near majorities. Non-Protestants eventually outnumbered protestants. Why do we call this new immigration?
• New economic and political developments in Europe and perceived as new by the people who had arrived earlier to the US
•  First was the family unit
• Keep in mind that the decisions to immigrate to the US were made by families. Seeking family connections. To live with among near folks to whom they were related. Second would be the village-seek out more established immigrants from the same village back in Europe. The first generation strove to preserve much of what we call old world culture.   Social relations of Europe that were transported to the new urban environments. These networks of kin and village helped newcomers
• These networks both worked for and against immigrants help guarantee that the immigrants can get a job but sometimes became the only job that they could get. New world developments that went along with old world?
• Ties that new immigrants had to the old country-foreign language newspaper-these developed throughout the 19th century-by 1917, there were 1323 foreign language newspapers in the United States

• Jewish benefit society
• meaning “from the same land”
• institution formed around geographic/social relations of europe and transported to America
• these networks helped immigrants find work--way of putting certain ethnic groups to certain jobs
• kinship and village networks
• though it guaranteed immigrants’ jobs, it also sometimes became the only job-future generations pressured
• depicted a new world that developed that reflected old world ties

• economic conditions they are fleeing from

Both groups came to seek better opportunity. Immigrants in Southern Italy were trying to flee from poverty called La Miseria-particular to a time and place. the land itself was still a welcoming home in their eyes. Most Italian immigrants had the mindset to return to their homeland. However, it is that economic condition that forced them to flee their homeland.  

Not so for the Jews. tsar Alexander died in 1881, anti-Semitism in the Russian empire reached new heights. The assassination was blamed on the Jews. Pogroms-thousands of Jews were killed and lost homes and property. prevalent anti-Semitism during the period which restricted participation in the economy. For most of the Jews between the assassination of the tsar and the beginning of WWI saw the move as likely to be permanent and entire families went to the US, not just young men (like the Italians). More likely to regard their homeland as the old world that they were leaving behind, rather than a place to return to. They may have attachments to the world, but less likely to return or hope to return.

• peasant- used by Italian immigrants to castigate boorish Italian male who sought personal gain and ignored community while showing indifference to acculturation
• abandoned communalism-no desire to play by new social/cultural rules

Typical stereotypes emerged as new immigrants came into the cities.
Italian word that means peasant but used by italian immigrants to castigate boorish selfish Italian men who sought personal gain and violated the communal norms of the old world but were also showing indifference to the project of acculturating to their new environment. That negative stereotype simultaneously underscores the fact that the Italian immigrant has abandoned group solidarity and has no desire to play by the social and cultural rules of the environment. No refinement no education, no politeness, not trying to fit in-the word tries to criticize this type of man. The ethnic stereotype to one might compare is the hybrid linguistic of providence

• Jewish term for adopting American consumer habits as a means of acculturation-Jews mocking other Jews
• mocking excessive desire of members to become cosmopolitan to disown their culture
• indicates Immigrant concerns/worries. Contributes to hostile city environment

• secular entertainment (the theater) played an important role for “new” Jewish immigrants
• the Yiddish Theater originated in Eastern Europe-involved musicals, adaptation of Western theater
• In America- dramatic renditions of the pathos of Jewish immigrant experience
• example of ambiguity of acculturation
• YT preserved language and reinforced ethnic solidarity
• created ethnically homogeneous cultural experiences
• provided jobs exclusively for Jewish immigrants
• audience was all Jewish as well
• audience assumed immigrant experience was though the same as others, still uniquely Jewish
• large cross over into popular entertainment (Vaudeville)

• 1880s
• mixed genre of fast-paced burlesque but to a mixed gender audience
• 1880s-1920s became most popular form of entertainment
• Jewish immigrants and children took to the stage (i.e. Groucho Marx, Sophie Tucker)
• big impact on American comedy
• much lighter than yiddish theater
• satirical
• drew upon minstrelsy, bowery sketches, and later motion pictures
• African Americans typically excluded
• celebration of integration of New Immigrants but had little to do with flexibility of color-line
• commercialized but celebrated ethnic peculiarity
• city people are producing and distributing a mass-entertainment product