A COMPREHENSIVE PICTURE OF AMERICA DURING 1890-1940

University Degree Architecture, Building and Planning

The rapid growth of American cities and population in the last decades of the nineteenth century had turned some of the American cities into places of crime, violent, corruption, congestion and disease. This article is about the historical and socio-economic background of America which led to the development of modern crime, crime-fighting forces and crime fiction. It will be covered two periods: 1890-1917 and 1917-1940.

Reasons of the rapid growth of American cities and population

To begin with, we should first discuss why there was a rapid growth of American cities and population, how it affected life in America afterward.

The main reasons for the rapid growth of American cities and population in the nineteenth and twenties century are urbanization and immigration. In the half-century after the Civil War, the urban population increased sevenfold. Many people from the rural area moved to the cities. In 1920, the urban population exceeded the population living in the rural areas for the first time. In the late nineteenth century, many Americans left the declining agricultural regions of the East and moving to the West. Most of the Americans who left the rural areas for industrial cities in the 1880s were southern black as they wanted to escape from oppression, poverty and debt in the rural South. (Alan Brinkley, 2004)

However, the main source of urban population growth at that time was came from abroad, for example, from Canada, Latin America, China, Japan and Europe. However, later there was an increasing number of immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe. Italy, Russia and Poland were among the biggest sources of the late nineteenth century migrants. Especially after 1890, more than half of all immigrants came from these regions. (Alan Brinkley, 2004)

Influences of the rapid growth of American cities and population

Resentment among the native-born Americans

All these led to a numerous problems in America afterward. Firstly, with the number of immigrant continuous increase, there is a radical shift in the nation’s ethnic background. According to Ronald Allen Goldbery, around 14.3 million people arrived in America between 1900 and 1917. In 1920, there were around 14 million foreign-born people out of a total population of 105700000 in America. That is why many American had a fear of being overwhelmed and of suddenly finding one day that they are no longer themselves.

Secondly, according to Alan Brinkley, by 1890, most of the population of the major urban areas consisted of immigrant: 87 percent of the population in Chicago, 80 percent in New York, 84 percent in Milwaukee and Detroit. However, there was no single national group dominated in America. As there are a huge numbers of new immigrants who have different cultures and languages from the native-born Americans, it provoked fear, resentment and a strong sense of racial prejudice among the native-born Americans. Ronald Allen Goldbery had his own view toward the culture conflict developed during the late nineteenth and early twenties century in America.

…………….Not only the volume but also the cultures and lifestyles of the newer immigrants seemed threatening to the old-stock Americans. Most were Catholics and Jews from southern and eastern Europe and possessed different core values. They were not used to free enterprise, industrialism, competition, self-help and social mobility…… A culture conflict developed, as old-stock Protestants living in rural America had difficulty accepting the manners and values of the cities, with their diverse ethnic groups, relaxed ethical codes and easy political virtues.

Crime and violent

Most of the new immigration of the late nineteenth century did not have enough capital to buy farmland and lacked the education to establish themselves in profession (Alan Brinkley, 2004). Many of these immigrants were livings in poor conditions. For example, in Boston, immigrants moved into cheap three-story wooden house. In Baltimore and Philadelphia, the new arrivals crowded into narrow brick row houses. And in New York and many other cities, they lived in tenements, which were miserable places, with many windowless rooms and little or no plumbing and heating (Alan Brinkley, 2004). And because of the poverty and crowding, many people turned to crime and violent. According to Alan Brinkley, the American murder rate rose rapidly in the late nineteenth century, from 25 murders for every million people in 1880 to over 100 by the end of the century. In South American the level of violence (lynching and homicide) was very high. In Western part of America, rootlessness and instability of new communities created lots of violence, too. At the same time, many women who moved into the city drifted into a life of ‘sin’ which exploited by predatory men. That why some of the American said that crime in America is the result of the violent proclivities of immigrant groups. They believed that the immigrant groups cited the rise of gangs and criminal organizations. However, just as what Alan Brinkley, in fact, native-born Americans in the cities were as likely to commit crime as immigrant.

Situation in America 1890-1917

Crime and corruption

Despite of the problems brought by immigration, there were other factors that cause the rise in violence in America. One of the factors is that the police forces could spawn corruption and brutality. For example, in 1894, the government of New York organized a special investigation to investigate how bad things were in New York and the report was that crime No.1 was the New York Policy Department. Also the politician enriched themselves and their allies though various forms of corruption. The most famously corrupt city boss was William M. ...

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Situation in America 1890-1917

Crime and corruption

The others factor for the rise in violence in America was the poor funding of the public agencies and private philanthropic organization. Because of this reason, some of the poor people turned to crime so as to ‘survive’.

Fire, disease and pollution

Urbanization and the increasing congestion of the city together with the disability of the government and the private agencies led to some others serious problems in the society. For example, fire, disease and pollution. As there was not enough sanitation facilities. Many cities lacked systems for disposing of human waste. As what Alan Brinkley said, as long as sewage continued to flow into open ditches or steams, polluting cities’ water supplies, the disease such as typhoid fever and cholera would continuous to spread. Also, the improper disposal of human and industrial waste led to the pollution of the rivers and lakes. Air pollution was come mainly from factories and from stoves and furnaces in offices, homes.

Favorable conditions that encourage development of crime fictions

Under this poor living condition and in this age of crime and violence, writing crime fiction became a fashion in the late nineteenth century. By 1905, detective fiction was finally popular enough to get public attention. So what other factors that favored the development of crime fictions in America.

To begin with, it is the mass circulation of magazine, for example, Collier’s, Cosmopolitan, Mc Clure’s and Munsey’s. Take Mc Clure’s as an example, its sales volume raised from 8000 to 250000 in 12 years. At the same time, the circulation of daily newspapers also increased nearly ninefold from 1870 to 1910. For example, Saturday Evening Post. Because of this reason, there is a rise in the number of muckrakes and they are also the one who write the crime fictions. The success of the publication of the crime fiction encouraged more people to write it.

Relationship between the crime friction and the situation in America

As we mentioned before many of the writers of the crime fiction were the muckrakers, it is very nature for them to write what they saw in the daily life into the fiction. At the same time, the crime fiction also to a certain extent influenced the society. For example, Sherlock Holmes was a famous crime fiction character. He even got a real metal from the police force. In the fiction, the police used new technology (e.g. microscope). This inspired the police in the real world used this technology to investigate the crime. Austin Freeman was another crime fiction writer who tried to tell the people that finger print may not be the only evidence to prove a crime. After his fiction became popular, the police began to revise their investigational process.

Difference between the American crime fiction and the British ones

So what is the difference between the American crime fiction and the British ones? Firstly, they are different in tone. The American crime fictions are mainly talking about the temporary background of the current event. Secondly, they are different in subject matter. The American crime fictions usually do with the politic and social element, which expose the corruption, crime to the public light. Thirdly, they are different in style. The American crime fictions usually written in hardboiled style, there is a sense of fast moving and short in speed.

Others important innovation in 1890-1917

Despite of the above poor living condition, in the period of 1890-1917, there was also some important innovation. Firstly, it was the great city park, which showed the desire of a growing number of urban leaders to provide an antidote to the congestion of the city landscape. For example, the New York’s Central Park. Secondly, in Chicago, the construction in 1884 of the first modern ‘skyscraper’, which is the later standards relatively modest building, ten stories high. The early Chicago skyscrapers paved the way for some of the great construction marvel later in the twentieth century: the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building in New York, the Lasalle Building in Chicago. (Alan Brinkley, 2004)

Conclusion

In general, in 1890-1917, as the population increase in a very rapid way that exceed the capacity of a city. There were a lot of problems like disposing of sewage, curing disease, rising of crime. Although the government had tried to do sometime to cope with it, it would not be effective as long as the government agency were still corrupt. As there was an increase in number of immigrants, there are a lot of races, ethnic groups’ problems inside the city. The American cities in 1890-1917 had both great achievements and serious problems.

Situation in America from 1917 to 1940

In 1917-1940, especially around 1920s, urban America confronted an old insular, rural America and culture conflict reached new levels of tension. With new population trends and ideas testing the nation’s core belief. This urban-rural conflict was manifested in the Prohibition, anti-immigrant sentiment, rise of the Ku Klux Klan, fear of radicals, and a determined counterattack by the fundamentalists. (Ronald Allen Goldberg)

Prohibition

Around 1920s, the saloon-keeper not only sell drinks to women, children, but also entered into partnerships with prostitution, gambling and even petty crime. He paid protection money to police to keep these arrangements going. He even helped run up votes for the political machines and formidable alliance was created when he delivered votes and money to the machines. According to Ronald Allen Goldberg, the saloon had become the modern ‘den of iniquity’.

The Prohibitionists believed that liquor debauched both black people and lower-class whites, kept these groups poor and prevented the South from developing. They also believed it led to crime and immorality and worsened the race question. Although the prohibition of sale and manufacture of alcohol went into effect in January 1920, there was no legal penalty for drinking. According to Ronald Allen Goldberg, by 1925, only an estimated 5 percent of illegal liquor smuggled in was stopped. Even doctors were involved in the violations. Doctors were also allowed to have six quarts of whisky and five gallons of alcohol per year for laboratory purposes, some of which undoubtedly wound up in circulation. Ronald Allen Goldberg has mentioned one of the unsuccessful cases in enforcing Prohibition:

……. in the city of Detroit, which became the ‘liquor capital’ of the nation (liquor was mostly smuggled in from Canada). The illegal liquor industry in Detroit was estimated at $215 million annually and was the second-largest industry in the city after automobiles. The police chief of Detroit said there were 1500 saloons when Prohibition went into effect and by 1925, the number had risen to at least 15000 places selling liquor in the city. Because of problems in Detroit and other parts of the country, in 1929 the assistant attorney general in charge of enforcing Prohibition said that in the United States liquor could be bought “at almost any hour of the day or night, urban or rural districts, the smaller towns or the cities.”

Some people may say that Prohibition could help to prevent crime; however, in fact, bootlegging became the chief income for gang which in turn makes them became rich and powerful. For example, Al Capone was the leading bootlegger, gambling and vice lord in Chicago. By 1927, Al Capone in Chicago was operating a $60 million business, which included bootlegging, prostitution, gambling, and he had a private army of nearly one thousand hoodlum who “rubbed out” rival bootlegger who infringed on Capone’s territory. (Ronald Allen Goldberg) George Brown Tindall showed his view on Prohibition in his book of America A Narrative History:

……the Prohibition supplied criminals with a new source of enormous income, while the automobile and submachine gun provided greater mobility and firepower. Gangland leaders showed remarkable gifts for exploiting loopholes in the law, when they did not simply bribe policemen and politicians…………In light of the illegal activities of Capone and other organized-crime members, it came as no great surprise in 1931 when a commission under former attorney-general George W. Wickersham reported evidence that enforcement of Prohibition had broken down. Of the commission’s eleven members, only five approved continued efforts to enforce Prohibition without change, four favored modifications, and two personally favored repeal.

Anti-immigrant sentiment, rise of the Ku Klux Klan,

The sheer number of immigrants was sufficient to cause alarm. That is why in 1921, Congress passed an emergency immigration act. According to Alan Brinkley, the contents and the effect of this act was as follow:

………… establishing a quota system by which annual immigration from any country could not exceed 3 percent of the number of persons of that nationality who had been in the United States in 1910. the new law cut immigration from 800000 to 300000 in any single year………The National Origins Act of 1824 banned immigration from east Asia entirely.

The provincial nativism helped the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, which largely concerned with Catholics, Jews and foreigners from 1917 onward. Membership in the Kan expanded quickly, by 1924; there were around 4 million members. However, although it seems that the Klan was like defenders of morality, it also operated as brutal, violent, opponent of alien groups. Klansmen systematically terrorized blacks, Jews, Catholics, and foreigners. (Alan Brinkley,2004)

Religious Fundamentalism

The modernists, fundamentalism wanted to stop the teaching of evolution in public school though gaining political power in some states. Alan Brickley had given a good example:

…….In Tennessee in March 1925, the legislature actually adopted a measure making it illegal for any public school teacher “to teach any theory that denies the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible.”

Crime

In 1920, the crime rate solution was around 70-80 percent, but since then it ran down. Despite of the corruption in the police department, the main reason for the situation was the change in nature in the crime. There was increased in number of people killed the others without a reason. They are just ‘random shooter’.

Syndicated crime was a natural evolution of crime. The criminals divided America into 7 zones.

New culture

After World War I, America built a vibrant and extensive national culture. (Alan Brinkley,2004)

Women

In 1920s, there was a sexual revolution. Women began to think that their sexual relationships with their husbands were not only as a mean of procreation, but also as a kind of pleasure. (Alan Brinkley, 2004) Romantic love and companionship was the basis for marriage. Sex came to be discussed with a new frankness during the 1920s. None of the Victorian mothers had any idea how casually their daughters were accustomed to be kissed. (F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1920) There was a growing interest in birth control. According to Alan Brinkley, Margaret Sanger was the pioneer of the American Birth-control movement. George Brown Tindall gave a clear picture about Margaret Sanger:

……..Sanger launched a nationwide tour to promote birth control. Arrested in several cities, the single-minded reformer with a genius for self-promotion attracted widespread publicity fro the cause of birth control…………….back in New York, Sanger opened the nation’s first family-planning clinic in Brooklyn in 1916………in 1921 Sanger organized the American Birth Control League, which changed its name to Planned Parenthood. The League distributed birth-control information t doctors, social workers, women’s clubs, and the scientific community, as well as to thousands of individual women………

During the New Era, women could smoke, drink, dance, wear discarded corsets, heavy makeup, skirt above the ankles, drove automobiles and join lively parties. According to Alan Brinkley, those assumptions became the basis of the ‘flapper’- the modern woman whose liberated lifestyle had a particular impact on lower- middle-class and working-class single women. All these defied the old Victorian expectations for womanly behavior.

Consumerism and Communications

In the 1920s, there was a growth in consumer culture, people started to buy things just for pleasure. Alan Brinkley had given some good examples:

……….Middle-class families purchased electric refrigerators, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners. People wore wristwatches and smoked cigarettes. Women purchased cosmetics and mass-produced fashions. Above all, Americans bought automobiles. By the end of the decade, there were more than 30 million cars on American roads.

By the 1930s, radio had become an important communications vehicle. More than 10 million families owned a radio by 1930s. According to Alan Brinkley, the first commercial radio station in America, KDKA in Pittsburgh, began broadcasting in 1920, and the first national radio network, the National Broadcasting Company, was formed in 1927.

Movies

By 1930, there were more than 23000 of movie theaters around America and they attracted more than 95 million customers each week. (George Brown Tindall) Movies were one of the popular forms of entertainment in 1920s, and films became more popular after the introduction of sound in 1927. for example, The Jazz Singer was the first talking motion picture. People relished “shoot ‘em up” gangster film. As one Hollywood official explained, the movies during the 1930s were intented to laugh the big bad wolf of the depression out of the public mind. (George Brown Tindall)

Crime fictions

Red Harvest, and The Malrese Fallon, The glass key, Thin Man, which were all written by Dashiell Hammett, were some of the famous crime fiction at that time. Some of them even turn into movie later on. However, we should remember one thing is that the American fiction did not become popular until it say “goodbye” to British mode. Also the American crime fictions did not create or invent hero, crime, places, police, etc, all of them were happening at that time.

Pulp magazines

Black mask by Carroll John Daly, Erle Stanley Gradner, Horace McCoy, Paul Cain, was one of the important pulp magazine at that time.

In order to reach more readers, some of the publisher reduced its cost by earning money through advertisement and using lower quality paper. Many of these pulp magazines sold well.

Conclusion

In 1917-1940, there was a great change in the traditional culture. Some were good, but some were controversies and injustices. This new culture attracted lots of people, but at the same time made lots of Americans felt alarm to it.

References

Alan Brinkley, ‘The Unfinished Nation’, published by McGraw-Hill 2004
George Brown Tindall, ‘America A Narrative History’, published by W.W.Norton and Company. New York. London 2004
Ronald Allen Goldberg, ‘America in the Twenties’, published by Syracuse University Press

Ronald Allen Goldberg, ‘America In The Twenties’, page 111

Ronald Allen Goldberg, ‘America In The Twenties’, page 110

George Brown Tindall, ‘America A Narrative History’, page 1058

Alan Brinkley, ‘The Unfinished Nation, page 640

Alan Brinkley, ‘The Unfinished Nation, page 642

George Brown Tindall, ‘America A Narrative History’, page 1064

Alan Brinkley, ‘The Unfinished Nation, page 634