In 1860 the United States was predominantly rural. Most people were engaged in agriculture, and about 80 percent of the population actually resided on farms or in small villages. Only 20 percent lived in towns and cities of 2,500 or more, the census definition of an urban area after 1880. New York alone in 1860 had more than 1 million people, and only 8 cities could boast about a population of more than 100,000. Thereafter the transition from a rural to a predominantly urban nation was ...

In 1860 the United States was predominantly rural. Most people were engaged in agriculture, and about 80 percent of the population actually resided on farms or in small villages. Only 20 percent lived in towns and cities of 2,500 or more, the census definition of an urban area after 1880. New York alone in 1860 had more than 1 million people, and only 8 cities could boast about a population of more than 100,000. Thereafter the transition from a rural to a predominantly urban nation was especially remarkable because of its speed. By 1900, urbanization, with all of its benefits, problems, and prospects for a fuller life, became the mark of modern America.

The changing physical landscape reflected the shift to an urbanized society. Railroad terminals, factories, skyscrapers, apartment houses, streetcars, electric engines, department stores, and the increased pace of life were all signs of an emerging urban America. Indeed, the vitality, dynamic quality, variety, and restless experimentalism in society centered in the urban communities where the only constant factor was change itself.

Urbanization did not proceed uniformly throughout the nation. New England and the Middle Atlantic states contained the highest percentage of city dwellers. In the Middle West, the growth of cities such as Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and St. Louis showed the importance of urbanization in that region. The three West Coast states also experienced rapid urban growth. In the South, urbanization developed much more slowly, although by 1910 the expansion of transportation, commerce, and industry had greatly increased the population of older cities such as New Orleans and stimulated the growth of new urban centers such as Birmingham. However, the South remained predominantly rural. Only somewhat more than 20 percent of the population in that region was urban by 1910.

In some regions the urban impact had a depressing effect upon the surrounding rural communities. Much of New England in the late nineteenth century presented a discouraging picture of abandoned farms and sickly villages as people forsook the countryside and rushed to the larger towns and cities. In the Middle West, particularly Ohio and Illinois, hundreds of townships lost population in the 1880’s.

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