megalopolis - An extensive, heavily populated area, containing several dense urban centers. “The... city gave way to the immense and impersonal megalopolis...”

tenement - A multi-dwelling building, often poor or overcrowded. “The cities... harbored... towering skyscrapers and stinking tenements.”

affluence - An abundance of wealth. “These leafy ‘bedroom communities’ eventually ringed the bring-and-concrete cities with greenbelt of affluence.”

despotism - Government by an absolute or tyrannical ruler. “... people had grown accustomed to cringing before despotism.”

parochial - Concerning a parish or small district. “Catholics expanded their parochial-school system....”

sweatshop - A factory where employees are forced to work long hours under difficult conditions for meager wages. “The women of Hull House successfully lobbied in 1893 for an Illinois anti-sweatshop law that protected women workers...”

pauper - A poor person, often one who lives on tax-supported charity. “The first restrictive law... banged the gate in the face of paupers...”

convert - A person who turns from one religion or set of beliefs to another. “A fertile field for converts was found in America’s harried, nerve-racked, and urbanized civilization...”

Fundamentalist - A Protestant who rejects religious modernism and adheres to a strict and literal interpretation of Christian doctrine and Scriptures. “Conservatives, or ‘Fundamentalists,’ stood firmly on the Scripture... ”

agnostic - One who believes that there can be no human knowledge of any God or gods. “The... skeptic... lectured widely on ‘Some Mistakes of Moses’ and ‘Why I Am an Agnostic.”

behavioral psychology - The branch of psychology that examines human action, often considering it more important tan mental or inward states. “His [work] helped to establish the modern discipline of behavioral psychology.”

syndicated - In journalism, material that is sold by an organization for publication in several newspapers. “Bare-knuckle editorials were... being supplanted by feature articles and non-controversial syndicated material."

tycoon - A wealthy businessperson, especially one who openly displays power and position. “Two new journalistic tycoons emerged.”

prohibition - Forbidding by law the manufacture, sake, or consumption of liquor. “Statewide prohibition.... was sweeping new states into the ‘dry’ column.”

rustic - Concerning unsophisticated country ways; crude and inelegant. “Art had been of sickly growth in the rustic years of the Republic...”