By the early 1800s, the number of immigrants increased drastically. America was becoming a melting pot of different ethnicities including Germans, Swedish, Bohemians, English, French, and Polish. After the civil war, coming into the United States was made easier due to the innovations in steam-based engines for ships, allowing for larger ships to bring in immigrants in mass numbers. (Diner, 2008: 1) This exponential increase in immigrants was considered a threat to the nation’s security, which resulted in forcing government legislation to place regulations on immigration. In 1912, the National Origins Act was passed which restricted the number of immigrants allowed to enter the United States and assigned slots according to quotas based on origins.
The World War I had brought America to the forefront of the global outlook. The war time excesses in production transformed into prosperity during the next decade which would watch America seek continued isolation despite the mounting global challenges. The Great War and the resulting Versailles Treaty left Europe in a rather deprived and devastated state where the Europeans continued to seek cultural and economic assistance from their cross-Atlantic neighbors. With new job opportunities, progressive ideas, an air of liberalism had developed around the American continent. This openness and jubilance was most evident in the arts, entertainment and economic sectors of the economy.
In the 20th century, the automobile was a welcome change to American life, as it granted workers and families a new mobility and thus a new sense of freedom and urgency, and we became a nation excessively dependent on our cars. More than anything else, the car was the symbol of American post-war prosperity. However, that prosperity has cost us, in various ways, the American dream. Whereas we once thought of cars as the epitome of personal freedom, more and more we are becoming limited by the expense of that freedom. The American Public Transportation Association estimates that it costs a resident of the Boston area, for example, $13,000 a year to own a car.
The creation of the magazine, such as Time by Henry Luce, encourage people continue in their direction of booming buying, and the people listened. This new American dream caused citizens to want, want, want, even though they were spiraling toward an economic decline
Joan Lee Period 1, AP Us History 5 January 2010 Chapter 25 America Moves to the City 1865-1900 Through industrial revolutions, many Americans began to abandon their agrarian farm lives and grasp the life of the City. Not only were Americans following this trend, many Europeans begun to desert farming and search for fresh job opportunities in the cities. This instigated a prodigious increase of city dwellers and minimized the amount of farmers in the U.S. I. The Urban Frontier (pages 557-560) a.
This plan would revitalize the economic depression and prevent future depressions from reoccurring. It was known as the “New Deal”. By fulfilling many promises that the Roosevelt had made, slowly but surely, millions of Americans were back on their feet working again. Through the New Deal era, businesses, banks, and industries began to redevelop and flourish once more in
Coney Island In Amusing the Million, a book written by John F. Kasson, readers are allowed to step back into a time long ago where American culture was experiencing a big change. The attitudes and behavior of the people were becoming more liberal and less conservative. This is easily seen through their forms of entertainment and socially accepted norms. Coney Island and its great amusement parks and beaches help serve as a poster place so that we can see the transition unfold. The first amusement parks, the Columbian Exposition and Central Park, followed the guidelines of America’s conservative values.
Ellis Island Ellis Island was considered the gateway to the land of opportunity because millions of immigrants from Europe passed through it. It was a place where immigrants were judged and accepted into America. America’s unique diversity in population is directly attributed to immigration. The American Government needed a detailed process of weeding out the diseased. I think most immigrants found happiness in America.
Henry Ford was very famous for promoting this wonderful commodity that represented a new kind of freedom. It was a symbol of the American Dream, and everyone was striving to have the new product. “The automobile was the backbone of economic growth.” The first real automobile appeared in Middletown in 1900; however, it wasn’t until Henry Ford came around and created a mass production of automobiles that the machine that would provide easy travel would become popular. Although the automobile created such a wonderful freedom, many adults thought that it was tearing families apart. Teenagers were spending more time with their friends driving around instead of staying at home with their family.
When he was younger he planned on creating something for the rich as well for common man that would involve engines. He created the Ford Model T, which was affordable for the poor, and continued to create Model A and other modeled cars (Joans 2010). By the end of World War I half of Americans owned the model T car. The affordable cars like those Ford produced transformed America (Roak et al., 2011). Ford created the automobile industry, which employed thousands of workers and inspired new industries as well (Heritage, 2010).The new industries included but were not limited to: gas stations, mechanics, fast food restaurants drive-ins (pig stands) and motels (A&E, 2006).