The Man with his Hoe

On New Years day in 1898 Edwin Markham's poem "The man with his hoe" was read. This poem talked about laborers struggles and talked about society as a whole. He opens the poem with,
"Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world."
This quote begins by talking about the hardships of the laborer or middle class worker. He feels that they have a hard life and work hard all the time. This work tires the worker out and makes him feel empty as a whole because he is so tired. Yet, Markham explains that this worker's work is holding up the world. This worker works extremely hard just to feel this emptiness. The laborer's in the world hold the country up and we treat them with minimum wage and poor working conditions. Urbanization brought many people to cities to work in large corporations, yet as this poet feels, were under appreciated by the owners and, in turn, treated poorly. Markham shows that he dislikes what Urbanization has done to the world later in this poem. he says,
"O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
Is this the handiwork you give to God,
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quencht?"
Markham felt that the world that the people in power created is terrible. He feels the world is changed in the most terrible way and that it has brought upon the souls of humans being drained. Markham feels that the new world, industrialized and urbanized, is an unacceptable thing to give back to God. God created life, gave us everything we need to survive and made us the ruler of earth, yet we are going to give him back a world monstrous, distorted, and soul-quencht. Markham clearly feels that Urbanization has made the world a much worse place and has stripped so many people of their livelihood.

Chicago Fire of 1871

Fires were a big, new problem with Urbanization. Urbanization brought millions of people to live in tall, cramped buildings without modern fire safety features that are now required in buildings. According to an article in American History, after the Civil War, Chicago became the timber capital of the world. This and the fact that steel and masonry were used very infrequently caused many buildings to be wooden and suceptible to fires. Also, Chicago was known for a certain type of buildings called balloon-frame buildings that were built a certain way that was cheap and easy to build, but caused many fire hazards. The city was also considered the fastest growing and the most polluted in America at the time. American History called it, "a tinderbox waiting to be ignited." This eventually did happen and it ruined 90,000 homes and killed over 250. Urbanization had boomed the economy but it also allowed for terrible things such as the Chicago Fire of 1871 occur.

Urbanization of America Part 3

After reading an article on American Urbanization, it seems to me that American Urbanization was just a rush of people trying to find easy money. People stormed cities almost all at the same time due to the hope of a better life due to more money. For instince, in four years the population of San Fransisco rose from less than 1,000 inhabitants to 35,000 inhabitants due to the California Gold Rush. People always have wanted the best life for themselves and Urbanization is just a result of this human behavior. The rush to cities also created problems. Epidemics spread like wildfire in the cities because there was no modern water or sewage systems. Also, fires spread like wildfires because the close packing of cities made these fires spread quickly. Not only did americans flood cities, but immigrants hoping for the same american dream spread to american cities. Cities did a lot of good but a lot of bad in American Society but all of it was a rush to find more money.

"urbanization." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2010. .

Urbanization of America

America in its early years was pretty big on agriculture. Whether it was cotton, indigo, tobacco, or any grain or livestock, it was a pretty big part of american business and lifestyle. After the civil war and before the turn of the century, people started moving to the cities to live and work. There were many jobs in these cities because there were advancements in transportation and industry so huge companies, like those controlled by Rockefeller, created enormous amounts of jobs in these cities. This made people swarm to cities nationwide. I think this is funny because 50 years later, those same people left the same city they swarmed to. After the war, people left the city to live a better life. And now it seems, people are just getting lazier and lazier. People care more about personal satisfaction than true hard work. Just find that kind of interesting.