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AP U.S. History Exam 1.31 195 Views
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Description:
The appeal of city living has always been strong. Can you figure out why new immigrants chose to live in big cities? Hint: they weren't trying to be cast in a revival of "Cats".
Transcript
- 00:00
[ musical flourish ]
- 00:03
And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by tenement housing,
- 00:07
ten times the roommates at ten times the price. What a deal.
- 00:11
All right, take a look at this excerpt.
- 00:12
[ mumbles ]
Full Transcript
- 00:17
All right, and the question:
- 00:18
Despite the cultural divide, many new immigrants chose to live
- 00:22
in big cities because... why?
- 00:24
And here are your potential answers.
- 00:29
Well, for many new immigrants in the 19th century,
- 00:31
living in the big city was much slicker
- 00:34
than settling in a small town.
- 00:36
Let's see why these folks felt the urban was
- 00:38
so superior to the suburban.
- 00:42
Well, despite the cultural divide, did many immigrants choose
- 00:44
to live in big cities because A -
- 00:46
living conditions were safer and services were regularly provided?
- 00:50
Well, remember How the Other Half Lives
- 00:52
was published in 1890, which was
- 00:54
before the big city clean-up of the Progressive Era.
- 00:57
That means that living conditions were both dangerous
- 01:00
and expensive. Were immigrants choosing to live in big cities
- 01:03
because B - immigration regulations restricted them
- 01:06
from moving between states?
- 01:08
Well, while regulations did exist for how many immigrants
- 01:11
there could be from a certain country,
- 01:13
once they got here, immigrants weren't prohibited
- 01:15
from moving between states. So that eliminates
- 01:17
B, as well. Which means that immigrants
- 01:19
chose to live in big cities because D -
- 01:22
employment opportunities were available in factories and big businesses.
- 01:26
Despite the downfalls of living in urban areas,
- 01:28
factories and big businesses were booming
- 01:30
and they offered jobs to immigrants that couldn't be found in a small town.
- 01:34
So D is the right answer.
- 01:35
Eventually, reformers passed protections that guaranteed
- 01:38
a fair wage and safer housing for immigrants
- 01:41
and the working class, which helped make the other half
- 01:44
not half bad.
- 01:46
[ whistle ]
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