This chapter tells the story of the rise of modern industrial cities and their effect on American life in the late nineteenth century. Cities became the indispensable centers of the new industrial order. They provided capital, labor, and markets as they grew and profited from the industries they attracted. These industries also drew and unprecedented number of people, some from the hinterlands of America, others from abroad. Consequently, a city-bred mix of cultures soon dominated American life. As you will read in Chapter 24 on the Progressive Era, the problems bred in cities also came to beset American reformers' efforts to improve these new urban environments.