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The development of American cities radically altered the nation's social environment and problems. The journalist who
exposed How the Other Half Lives in urban tenements was Jacob Riis. If an American became ill in the 1870s, home care would
be the accepted form of tratment. Most Americans in the 1880s were church-attending Protestants. The Comstock Law legislated
public morality. The most famous of the urban political bosses in the late nineteenth century was William Tweed. The common-law
doctrine of femme couverte was revised to adapt to the changes of the period. As a result of the Plessy v. Ferguson decision,
African American education was to be separate but equal to white education. Booker T. Washington believed that self-help was
the best plan for African Americans. The Social Darwinists believed the laws of nature applied to society. According to Henry
George, there was a wide gulf between rich and poor.
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