Title: 1900: A Year in the Life of America - Genealogy.com
Headings: 1900: A Year in the Life of America
1900: A Year in the Life of America
What was Life Like for Your Ancestors in 1900?
Attitudes
Economy and Technology
Society and Politics
Entertainment and Leisure

Content: For every American, including the working class, there was "possibility." Anything was possible in America. This was the place of the self-made man, the American Dream, "rags to riches." Economy and Technology
With this prosperity and possibility came jobs. Still largely a rural society, Americans increasingly moved to the city looking for work, armed with a belief in the possibilities and a strong work ethic. Alongside them came nearly a half-million immigrants in 1900, also seeking a better life. America's Industrial Revolution produced much prosperity and leisure, but also much poverty and disillusionment. Tycoons such as J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie amassed fortunes greater than many European nobility. But in the same cities, factory workers and coal miners, often children, slaved for perhaps $1 to $2 each 12-16 hour day. With no safety net, many workers just couldn't make it -- nearly a third of 1900's immigrants headed back home.