Which period saw the most rapid increase in urbanization in the eastern united states?

Urbanization occurred rapidly in the second half of the nineteenth century in the United States for a number of reasons. The new technologies of the time led to a massive leap in industrialization, requiring large numbers of workers. New electric lights and powerful machinery allowed factories to run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Workers were forced into grueling twelve-hour shifts, requiring them to live close to the factories.

populist movement, in u.s. history, politically oriented coalition of agrarian reformers in the middle west and south that advocated a wide range of economic and political legislation in the late 19th century. thus in 1892 their leaders organized the populist, or people's, party, and the farmers' alliances melted away.