Episode Details

By the end of the nineteenth century, cities in industrialized nations were filled with people in search of work. These cities offered many benefits. For those who preferred high culture, plays, concerts, operas, and ballets were regularly staged. Music halls, arcades, and burlesque shows catered to the popular taste, as did amusement parks. Libraries and parks were open to everyone. Department stores gave people the opportunity to buy the latest fashions—or to dream about them through the window.          

There were negative aspects to city life as well. Housing, especially for immigrants and the working class, was usually overcrowded, and rooms often lacked fresh air and sunlight. Both the water and the air in industrial cities were polluted, and infectious diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis were common. Poverty drove many to drink, and some women resorted to prostitution to survive. The literature and art produced by romantics, realists, and naturalists depicted all aspects of life in the industrial age.            

All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/10-2-life-in-the-industrial-city            

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