The 1900s Lifestyles and Social Trends: Overview

The United States shed many of its nineteenth-century styles, traditions, and beliefs as it entered the modern era. America in 1900 was vastly different from the rural, farm-based economy populated largely by Anglo-Saxons of a hundred years before. The country was becoming increasingly urbanized, and its cities were filling with immigrants from nations around the world. Immigrants and their children accounted for the majority of the population in cities like Cleveland, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and St. Louis, Missouri. Many of these newly arrived Americans could neither read nor write English and, therefore, were able to undertake only manual labor and factory jobs.

Tensions between native-born Americans and others arose, especially when immigrants realized that America was not the idyllic land they had imagined. Schools struggled with educating immigrant children, who were unfamiliar with both the language and the American way of life. The business sector encountered its own struggles as labor unions fought to receive better wages and benefits from employers who were unaccustomed to negotiating with workers.

Women made many advances during the century's first decade, as they built upon the accomplishments of those who had demanded more equal treatment during the 1800s. In the 1900s, women were increasingly joining the workforce at all levels. Immigrant and working-class females began to be employed outside the home as opportunities in manufacturing and retailing expanded. Educated women made greater advances in both the academic and professional spheres as they joined the ranks of doctors, lawyers, and professors who had previously been all male. By 1910, nearly 40 percent of America's undergraduates were female. Women were also greatly involved in social work and religious causes. Jane Addams inspired generations of women into action through her efforts at Hull House, a settlement house in Chicago that educated and helped immigrants. Many women, such as Carry Nation, joined the Temperance Movement (a movement to limit alcohol consumption) and rallied for the prohibition of alcohol. Another social concern that drew the attention of many women was suffrage, or the right to vote.

Other significant changes affected America's lifestyle and social trends. Technological inventions, such as the automobile and the airplane, improved transportation and made travel more available and affordable to the average citizen. Mass production of cars in the early 1900s brought the United States into the automobile age, which had a profound impact on the culture for decades. The motion picture industry was gradually being developed as well, and within the decade, America was captivated by this new mode of entertainment. Advances were also made in radio transmission. Furthermore, the American home became filled with such new appliances as the electric light, icebox, phonograph, telephone, and vacuum cleaner.

American styles and fashions also evolved, as Victorian formalism slowly gave way to more modern styles of dress, architecture, furniture, and interior design. Women, inspired by the popular magazine illustrations of the "Gibson Girl" as the representation of the new modern female, began to wear more fashionable clothes. The growth of department stores and national catalogues allowed styles to be regularized across the country. Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionized the field of architecture with his fluid use of space, natural light, and environmentally friendly designs. The Arts and Crafts movement spread from Europe to some sections of America during this period. Soon, many homes were showcasing fine, hand-crafted furnishings and exotic styles. Although some Americans were reluctant to embrace modernism and its emphasis on all things new and contemporary, many others came to recognize the customs, styles, and tastes of the Victorian period as being totally outdated.