In 1800, the United States was a fledgling nation embarking on a brand-new experiment in republican government. Seventeen states hugged the eastern seaboard as explorers and settlers established territories in the west. A mere handful of manufactories in New England experimented with new machines and methods for textile production. The vast majority of people lived and worked on farms. The total population was less than six million. One hundred years later, 76 million people lived in the United States. The country spanned the continent and railroads linked the East and West Coasts. Almost half of all Americans living in the Northeast dwelt and worked in cities of more than 8,000 people. The same would be true for the nation by 1920. Millions of Americans migrated west or to urban centers. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans migrated to northern cities. Thousands of Native Americans experienced forced migration and relocation. Always a nation of immigrants, the United States experienced unprecedented immigration in this period. These newcomers flooded into cities and rural communities. They struggled to adapt to a new country while preserving their own distinct cultures, languages, and belief systems. Rapid advances in technology and industrialization changed and continued to change the way in which Americans lived and worked. Mass manufacturing made available cloth and ready-made clothing to consumers. Electric lighting and running water became more common, especially in urban areas. These developments had a darker side, however. Men, women and children worked long hours in unsafe factories to meet the insatiable American appetite for cheap, mass-produced goods. Jacob Riis shocked viewers with his photographs of the living conditions among the urban poor. Lincoln Steffens’ exposé on the political corruption in the nations’ cities scandalized the country. Meanwhile, rural farmers struggled to keep their farms in the face of increased competition, costly machinery, and falling prices. The failure of post-Civil War Reconstruction to secure the rights and liberties of African Americans bore bitter fruit, especially in the southern states. The social and economic stresses that accompanied rapid industrialization took its toll on Americans in this period. American culture promoted the family circle as a haven from the pressures of urban and industrial life. Parents were urged to protect the innocence of their children from the harsh reality of the outside world for as long as possible. Men and women struggled with newly emerging gender roles and responsibilities as more and more women entered the work force through choice or necessity. Many Americans looked back with nostalgia to the country’s pre-industrial past even as they celebrated the accomplishments of the 20th century.