The poor, the lower middle class, and the wealthy had different housing and, in their respective districts, different cityscapes. The instructor may wish to awe his or her students with descriptions of the opulent accommodations of the very wealthy or appall them with revelations about those of the very poor. The efforts of such persons as Frederick Law Olmsted to improve the lot of the city dweller are also notable. See Arnold Lewis et al., The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age (1987), and Arnold Lewis and Keith Morgan, American Victorian Architecture: A Survey of the Seventies and Eighties in Contemporary Photographs (1975). At the other end of the spectrum, see Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (1890), also with photographs, and Children of the Poor (1892). It would not be amiss to end the lecture with some observations about housing for the rich, the lower middle class, and the poor in contemporary America.

When one thinks of a city boss, one thinks of corruption. But perhaps one should also think of the needs of constituents down on their luck. Single out a couple of the big-city bosses for a biographical sketch. Students deserve to understand the phenomenon of the boss in all its complexity. William Marcy Tweed is probably the best-known boss, but others may be cited as well. See Seymour Mandlebaum, Boss Tweed's New York (1965); Alexander B. Callow, Jr., The Tweed Ring (1966; and Oliver E. Allen, The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall (1993). See also Zane L. Miller, Boss Cox's Cincinnati (1968); Lyle W. Dorsett, The Pendergast Machine (1968); and John M. Allswang, Bosses, Machines and Urban Voters (1977). For a revisionist view, see Peter McCaffery, When Bosses Ruled Philadelphia: The Emergence of the Republican Machine, 1867-1933 (1993).

Reformers deserve further examination as well. The instructor may wish to focus on one or several of the reform groups. For example, students recognize the importance of moral reformers like Anthony Comstock and Charles Parkhurst but often have great difficulty understanding them. The commitment of Washington Gladden and Walter Rauschenbusch, leaders of the Social Gospel movement, wins student respect. Settlement-house leaders like Jane Addams, Sophonisba Breckenridge, and Florence Kelley are impressive not only for their commitment, but also for their leadership qualities at a time when few women occupied leadership positions. Paul Boyer, Urban Masses and Moral Order in America, 1820-1920 (1978), is an excellent source. See also Clifford W. Patton, The Battle for Municipal Reform: Mobilization and Attack, 1875-1900 (1940), and titles suggested in the chapter bibliography.

The very widespread character of attendance at colleges and universities in the United States at the present time has erased the aura of privilege that surrounded higher education in the late nineteenth century. Students will find interesting a lecture that describes the nature of college life, its privileged character, and the courses of study generally followed. Add to this a description of the changes that were establishing the beginnings of today's giant universities. See Frederick Rudolph, The American College and University: A History (1962); Laurence R. Vesey, The Emergence of the American University (1965); and Helen L. Horowitz, Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930s (1984).