America’s New Look as an Urban Nation
When the United States was founded as a nation after the Revolutionary War it was largely agrarian in nature. Even when people lived in the village, that town was made up fewer that ten houses on average and only occasionally had other buildings such as a school, church, or small store. The people lived together for protection, and traveled out to their farm land everyday to till, plant and harvest. With the advent of the industrial revolution staring in the early part of the nineteenth century and then even more so with the information revolution of the 1960's onward people began moving away from the country and into the city because that was where they worked. There were enough farms to support the
This is true, but that does not mean that acquiring the wealth to better your status is not difficult.
The Nature of City Life for Urban Americans
When people moved from the country into the urban environment, they usually did not have financial means to be in upper or even the middle class. Most people carne to cities to work in factories. The working conditions were poor until the union movement began in the early twentieth century and living was actually worse. People had difficult time acquiring adequate health care and because of the danger of working in factories pre-OHSA, there were many early deaths. The life expectancy for someone moving to the city from 1800 to about 1940 was 50 years. This meant that families often lost their only bread winner when he was relatively young. Women could get factory jobs, but they were expected to take far less pay than men. The conditions for children were even worse. Child labor laws did not protect children until the early 1900~s so they worked long hours a very difficult, short life. This changed gradually with different new laws and the union movement which gave them higher wages and benefits.
When people first started moving to cities there were myriad problems, a clearer class distinction and a harder life than they expected, but, for the most part those realities have changed. Many more people live in urban areas today than agrarian areas because of the access they