The rise of the city
In 1820 America was a land of farmers. Barely 5 percent of the people lived in towns or cities. But after that, decade-by-decade, the urban population swelled. By 1870, only 25 cities had a population exceeding 50,000 residents. By 1890 58 cities have populations exceeding 50,000 residents. By 1900, one out of every 5 Americans lived in cities of over 100,000 residents. Nearly a tenth of the nation, 6.5 million persons, lived in just three great cities: New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. The rise of the city had begun. The newfound cities at the turn of the 20th century provided a setting for and urban culture unlike anything seen before in the United States. The city itself became an arena to the nation’s vibrant economic life. Here is where the factories went up, and here is where the new immigrants settled, making up about a third of the residents of major American cities in 1900. In the new bundle of joy also lived the millionaires and the growing white-collar middle class. The migration from the farms to the city seem inevitable to the nineteenth-century Americans. Josiah Strong declared, “The greater part of our population must live in cities. In due time we shall be a nation of cities.” Urbanization was directly linke
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2317
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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