American Psychos

Abstract

While the European city had to define itself ‘against its medieval origins and the transformations from feudalism’, the American city defined itself against the ‘wilderness and frontier experience’ (Lehan 167). The growth of the American cities was rapid and heightened significantly by developments in communication and transport. The development of the Erie Canal in 1825 opened up eastern markets to farm products from the Great Lakes region; this fostered immigration to the old Northwest and urbanized the Midwest. New York became the principal East Coast city in both population and financial growth. A network of large cities on the major waterways of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers facilitated trade and transportation from the East Coast to the Mississippi Valley. After the Civil War, the cities of the Great Lakes became industrial centres: Buffalo (iron), Cleveland (oil), Detroit (cars), Chicago (steel and oil). In 1866 the extension of the telegraph with the laying of the Atlantic cable made the East Coast link between the Midwest and Europe. The steam engine revolutionized industry and as factories moved so too did rural populations. By 1920 there had been a dramatic population shift with more than half of the population living in urban areas. As Lehan notes, masses of people reared in rural areas had to adapt to the new hectic pace of city life, ‘the streets, the competitiveness, the intensity, the lack of community, the hostility, the anonymity’ (182–183).