Social, Political, and Economic Problems caused
by the growth of a modern, urban industrial society: 1870-1930

• The growth of large industrial cities and a national
  industrial economy dominated by large corporations.
  
  
• Increasing inequality between the very rich and the poor.
  
  
• Increasing conflicts between the "public interest" and
  "special interests" at all levels of government.
  
  
• An increasing sense of political and economic corruption
  at the local, state, and federal levels.
  
  
• An exploding urban population and the resulting
  shift from a rural, agarian society to an urban
  industrial society.
  
  
• Massive immigration and the need to assimilate
  large numbers of new immigrants.
  
  
• Increasing demands for basic services such as
  electricity, sewage, water, roads, telephone, and
  city parks.
  
  
• Increasing conflict between organized labor and
  large national corporations.
  
  
• The need to educate and prepare the young to live
  in a modern urban industrial society.
  
  
• The need to regulate a growing national media,
  such as movies, radio, telephone, magazines, and
  vaudeville.
  
  
• An increasing division between small-town American
  values and traditions and modern big-city values.
  
  
• An increasing rift between religion and science, which
  can be seen in the conflict between Fundamentalism
  and Darwinism in the early 1900s.