2.7 Mid-Semester 2 Reflection

2. 7 Mid-Semester 2 Reflection

By Adam Tyler

America in the 19th Century

1. The most important thing I've learned about immigration in the 19th century is how immigration actually improved industrialization. I say this because as more immigrants moved to the United States and other countries around the world, they sought economic opportunity and jobs, so many of them worked at industrial factories. With their hard work and less wage, more immigrants started to improve industrialization.

2. The most important thing I've learned about immigration from the new days is that many immigrants are still unfairly treated and there are several attempts to keep them out of America. Even though the immigration "racism" has gotten better, it still isn't perfect, as many are separated from their families, forced to get low-paying jobs, and live in places they don't want to live.

3. I think the 2 most challenging aspects of living in 19th century urban settings is finding a good place to live and remaining healthy at the same time. People tended to live in tenements in the 19th century, that were very unsanitary with limited space and it just seemed sad that someone would have to live there. Also, many people got diseases from living in tenements, so it was really important to look out for your health at the time. Mainly, poor people suffered the most from this while the rich mostly avoided bad health and bad living (because they're rich), but since there were a lot of poor people, it was kinda hard. Overall, many people weren't very good at finding a nice place to live or maintaining the best of their health.

4. The evolution of New York's High Line might be an example of Progressivism, since many people started to improve or move forward the High Line and make it evolve into something new and beautiful instead of the once old and moldy thing it was. They did this with plenty of artwork displayed where artists could actually make their own artwork with people watching them, helping the grass and other nature grow to make the scenery more pretty (feels like Spring). On the High Line, people even felt more connected and emotional as many of them were seen holding hands. However, the High Line could also not be considered an example of Progressvism since Progressivism is associated mostly with government and the state improving something (like industrialization), but they didn't really have anything to do with improving the High Line and the people who improved it where mostly just people who liked it from the start and didn't want to see it shut down. They even improved the High Line without major help from the government and turned it into something beautiful, so it really wasn't an example of Progressivism.