A Changing Balance.

At the start of the Civil War only one out of twelve Americans lived in a city of more than one hundred thousand inhabitants. By the start of the 1880s that figure stood at one in eight; by the turn of the century one in five. More American cities were big cities, and more Americans—many of them immigrants —called these cities home. Two-thirds of New England townships declined in population during the 1880s, even as the population of the region swelled by 20 percent. Similar demographics applied in the Midwest, as immigrants (from small towns, rural areas, and foreign lands) swelled urban populations. As cities expanded, so too did the communication, transportation, and economic channels connecting the metropolis to hinterland. It was the rare individual in the late nineteenth century whose way of life was not...