The Church had to give up the most controversial practice to join the USA , and now
officially polygamy practice is forbidden. Mormons practice the tithe - people must
give 10% of their income to the church. Utah is a very prosperous and conservative
state.
The Roman - Catholic Church
There are over 60 million. The colony of Maryland - the Saint Mary. 1649 - passed a law guarantying religious freedom.
As time passed Americans become very skeptical towards the Catholic religion, mostly because of :
- Catholics are always more loyal to the Vatican than to their own country
- American Roman Catholic Church - pedophilia among the Roman Catholic
priests in America.
ZJAZD 4
Most people lived In the country - America attracted many people at the availability of the land.
Raw materials sources, not developed
Small administrative centers, small towns
At the beginning of the 20th century half of the population lived in the cities and half lived in the country.
Nowadays about 80% live in the cities and 20% live in the country
EXURBS - areas located far from the metropolis but usually working in the city. Suburbs
There are such places in America :
- full of small towns everywhere , no country, e.g. in New Jersey. - on the other hand Nevada - no signs of life for miles
The first cities developed in 1625-1812 - early period of the city development :
1625 - New York , originally called New Amsterdam , with Manhattan bought form Indians , a place where the economic life thrived , with a big port
1630 - Boston - completely different atmosphere, this town looks a bit
different than N.Y. , Puritans created it’s atmosphere of a strict morality , strict standards. Nowadays in Boston the Catholic Church is really important.
Generally the whole Massachusetts was an educational center .Around
Boston many cities developed universities - e.g. Harvard, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , Radcliff.
Philadelphia in Pennsylvania , in Delaware Valley. A historical town. It’s a town
carefully planned by William Penn - he wanted to create Green Country Town
- a city that would have everything : factories, residential area, parks. He
created a grid plan for American cities - streets parallel and perpendicular to
each other (it’s easy to find the way). The plan was followed by many cities in
USA.
1565 - St . Augustine - established by the Spanish on Florida.
Middle years 1812-1912 - the big extension of the cities
The reason of growing of the cities :
- industrialization
- the development of the railways and roads - traveling became easier
- steady flow of immigrant workers - ready to work for a small salary
- a flow of farm workers (thanks to important inventions that replaced the farm
workers e.g. combine, McCormick reaper).
Problems appeared in the cities (19th century) :
- terrible sanitation - typhoid , dysentery diseases
- contaminated water
- insufficient housing
- poverty
- very high crime rates
- ethnic neighborhoods created (19th century) - Chinatown , Little Italy
- slums
- poorer transportation
- pollution
- traffic jams
- lack of recreational facilities
Those problems led to :
- crime
- violence
- drug addiction (opium)
20th century cities become worse and worse and it cause - FLIGHT OF WHITES -
white people started to move out from the cities to the suburbs.
This move to the suburbs was additionally to the two developments :
the development of a public transport - cable cars, railways, subways, buses popularization of a private car - strictly related to invention of H. Ford - people could commute much easily and became more and more independent
Suburbs gave the combination of the country and the closeness to the city
Why people moved into the suburbs ? Because of the falling prices of cars and houses.
Why houses became so cheap ?
After a II World War , a certain builder - William Levitt - decided to build cheap
houses for the middle class . He divided the building of the house into 27 tasks to be
made by the special groups. He built those houses on Long Island in 1946-47 , there
was a big demand for the houses near N.Y. One house cost 7,800 $ - it was still
affordable and cheap . Imitators appeared all over the country - they created
American suburbs , where all houses look the same. The lower middle class lives there.
Sociologists started to complain to this idea - mostly because W. Lewitt didn’t sell those hoses to black people, but also because the same structure of the
neighborhood was killing the individual spirit of America.
Cities after the II World War became worse and worse. Deterioration and
abandonment appeared. There were more and more slums where unemployed, unqualified black people lived. After 1945 a lot of Spanish started arriving , the situation was getting worse and worse.
The government made some steps to rehabilitate the cities :
- urban renewal
- US housing authority - to eliminate the problems such as slums clearance,
and introduce low cost loans.
- slums clearance - build a lot of housing projects with cheap apartments , but
not everywhere it solved the problem
- creating new downtown - to be a centre of the city , to attract tourists
- gentrification - instead of knocking down buildings many private investors
restored and renovate those buildings to make money
Detroit - the worst city in USA - slums , criminals, unemployment.
More and more people who are young and don’t want to live in the suburbs , want to live near the city center and have an easy access to all conveniences , not have to commute to work - a new type of a city dweller appears.
Inner city - means a place inside the city that is full of a very bad area and influence - slums, criminals, drugs etc.
The most typical American city is CHICAGO - multinational , multicultural and very many ethnic groups live there. At first it was a small trading village - in 1830’s
became a city and developed dynamically , a place where the agricultural products were transported and wood which was transported on Michigan Lake - NATURE METROPOLIS - it developed fast thanks to nature.
ZJAZD 5 [American Holidays]
January :
Jan 1st - NEW YEAR’S DAY
Times Square is the most important place where it is celebrated. American parties lasts shorter , they end soon after midnight. New Year’s Resolutions.
3rd Monday, Jan - MARTIN LUTHER KING’S DAY
February :
3rd Monday, Feb - THE PRESIDENT’S DAY I
It used to honor only G. Washington - Washington’s Birthday - , but now it’s celebrated to commemorate all past presidents.
14th, Feb - VALENTINE’S DAY
In America people express feelings to other people also. On this day, Americans
give special symbolic gifts to people they love. They also send special greeting
cards called Valentines to such people. Most commonly, the gifts are candy or
flowers.
March / April :
EASTER
Catholic holiday - Americans haven’t got Easter Monday, so they don’t have the day off. People don’t decorate houses etc. Eggs games (hiding, egg-rolling). People give small gifts.
PASSOVER
More or less the same time as Easter
May :
4th Monday , May - MEMORIAL DAY
This holiday, on the fourth Monday of every May, is a day on which Americans honor the dead. Originally a day on which flags and flowers were placed on
graves of soldiers who died in the American Civil War, it has become a day on which the dead of all wars and all other dead are remembered the same way. Federal Patriotic Holiday - Originally celebrated to commemorate Americans
killed in Civil War, later on Americans killed in all wars, nowadays all people killed during military service. It’s less celebrated than in Poland.