10.2 Life in the Industrial City

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Describe the benefits of living in a city in the Second Industrial Revolution
  • Analyze the problems of city life and their relationship to industrialization
  • Identify cultural and artistic movements of the Second Industrial Revolution

Hand in hand with industrialization went the process of urbanization. Industrial cities grew by leaps and bounds as workers streamed from the countryside and from overseas to find work in factories and other places of employment. City life was challenging, especially for those whose only experience of urban life had been their nearby market town. The rapidity with which growth and change took place often made it difficult to plan for the orderly development of cities. As a result, cities were dirty and overcrowded. However, they did offer exciting opportunities and benefits not available in the countryside.

This lesson has no exercises.

The content of this course has been taken from the free World History, Volume 2: from 1400 textbook by Openstax