Hunter's Point

A host of industries moved to the Hunter's Point area just outside the most populated portions of New York in the 1870s. The air, noise, and smell pollution these combined, concentrated industries emitted was truly noxious and harmful to the health. Air pollution was a major problem in the time period focused on in this book.

The Horse-drawn Streetcar

This primary means of transportation within a city had a host of problems. Freezing in the winter, sticky and suffocating in the winter, the streetcar was packed with as many passengers as possible, with people treated as little more than freight. The horse itself created an intense amount of manure, making for filthy and unhealthy streets.

The Rural Homestead

While the rural life is idealized in stories, life on the farm was in fact relentlessly dull and hard. Farmers had to contend with endless labor to keep...