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Difficulty: EasyImmigration, Urbanization, and Social Culture

Read the excerpt below.

"Today three-fourths of its [New York's] people live in the tenements, and the nineteenth-century drift of the population to the cities is sending ever-increasing crowds to join them... We know now that there is no healthy growth from the tenement house."
— Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 1890

Which of the following developments in the late nineteenth century was a direct response to the conditions described in the excerpt?

  1. A
    The creation of the Populist Party to address agricultural debt and currency reform.
  2. B
    The shift from home-based artisan manufacturing to the factory system.
  3. The growth of settlement houses to provide social services and education to urban immigrants.Answer
  4. D
    The implementation of British mercantilist policies to regulate colonial trade.

Answer

The growth of settlement houses to provide social services and education to urban immigrants.
The correct answer is correct because the settlement house movement, led by figures such as Jane Addams (Hull House), was established in late-nineteenth-century cities specifically to address the poverty, overcrowding, and lack of services in immigrant-dominated tenement districts.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the historical context of the primary source excerpt.
The excerpt, written by Jacob Riis in 1890, describes the overcrowding, rapid urbanization, and poor living conditions of tenements in late-nineteenth-century American cities.
Understanding the source and time period is essential for choosing the correct historical response.
2
Identify the Gilded Age development that directly targeted these specific urban immigrant living conditions.
The settlement house movement, such as Jane Addams's Hull House, emerged during this period to provide resources, sanitation support, and education directly within poor urban neighborhoods.
This links the historical problem (tenement living conditions) to the corresponding reform effort of the Gilded Age.

Key Concept

Urbanization and Social Reform Responses in the Gilded Age
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Topics

Immigration, Urbanization, and Social Culture

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