Changing Attitudes and Values
• The Industrial Revolution slowly changed the
old social order in the western world.
• Previously, the two main classes were nobles
and peasants.
• After the revolution, there was an upper class,
a new upper and lower middle class, and the
working class. Class structure was primarily
based on economic status rather than
heredity.
Middle Class Values
• The middle class developed its own way of
life. Most families lived in large homes or
modern apartment houses. Homes were
furnished with large, overstuffed furniture.
Clothing followed strict guidelines for
respectability. Etiquette was especially
important, and children were to be “seen and
not heard.”
Women’s Rights
• Some individual women and women’s groups
protested restrictions on women.
• Women campaigned for fairness in marriage,
divorce, and property laws. They supported the
temperance movement, a campaign to limit or ban
the use of alcoholic beverages.
• Women also struggled for the right to gain a college
education and to train as doctors and lawyers.
• The woman’s suffrage movement, or the struggle for
the right to vote emerged in the 1800s.
Growth of Public Education
• By the late 1800s reformers had persuaded many
governments to set up public schools and require
basic education for all children.
• Topics taught including reading and writing,
arithmetic, punctuality, obedience to authority, good
work habits, and patriotism. In European schools,
religion was also taught.
• At first, elementary schools were quite primitive, and
students were only in school when they were not
needed at home.
• By the late 1800s, more and more children were in
school, and the quality of elementary education
improved.
• In secondary schools, students learned Latin and
Greek, along with history and mathematics.
• Usually, only middle-families could afford to send
their sons to secondary schools, in the hopes that
they would be able to obtain further education or
enter government jobs.
• Colleges and universities were also expanding. Most
university students were the sons of upper- and
middle-class families.
• By the 1840s a few small women’s colleges had
opened.
New Directions in Science
• Researchers began developing new theories about
the natural world in the late 1800s.
• One breakthrough development came when John
Dalton developed the modern atomic theory. He
showed how different kinds combine to make all
chemical substances.
• In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleyev grouped the atoms by
weight into a table which became the basis for the
periodic table we use today.
• One of the most disturbing new theories came from
Charles Darwin, who published On the Origin of
Species in 1859. Darwin said that all forms of life had
evolved over millions of years. To explain evolution,
he developed the theory of natural selection.
• Darwin applied Thomas Malthus’ idea that
population growth could exceed the food supply to
plants and animals. Darwin said that as a result,
members of the same species had to compete for
survival, and that only those with physical traits
adapted to the environment they lived in would
survive. This process was called “survival of the
fittest.”
• Darwin applied this theory to humans, stating that
“Man is descended from some less highly organized
form.” He said that humans were still evolving.
• Darwin’s theories sparked a debate between
Christians and scientists that continues today.
• Darwin himself did not promote any social ideas, but
some thinkers used his theories to support their own
beliefs. When Darwinism is applied to social issues,
it is known as Social Darwinism. It is the idea that
industrial tycoons who built big businesses were
more “fit” than those they put out of business.
• Social Darwinism encouraged racism, or the belief
that one racial group is superior to another. These
ideas were used to justify imperialism (when one
country exerts power over another), racial
discrimination, and segregation.
A New Culture
• Changes in the structure of society led to cultural
changes as well.
• From 1750 – 1850 a cultural movement called
romanticism shaped literature and arts. Romantics
rebelled against the Enlightenment ideals of reason
and progress. They glorified nature and sought to
excite strong emotions in their audiences.
• Romantic writers included Charlotte and Emily
Bronte (Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights), Sir Walter
Scott, and Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers.)
• Romanic composers tried to stir deep emotions.
Ludwig van Beethoven combined classical forms of
music with a wide range of sound. He was the first
composer to use all the instruments in the modern
orchestra. Many consider him to be the greatest
composer of his day.
• Frederic Chopin was a second great Romantic
composer.
• Romantic painters attempted to capture the beauty
and power of nature. J.M.W. Turner often painted
scenes of tiny human figures struggling against the
elements.
• Romantic painters illustrated everything from
peasant life to medieval knights to current events.
Fishermen at Sea
Rosenau
Fall of the Rhine at Schaffhausen
The Call to Realism
• In the mid-1800s, Romanticism was replaced by
Realism. Realism was an attempt to represent the
world as it was. Realists focused on the harsh side of
life in cities or villages and often were committed to
improving the lives of those they depicted.
• Charles Dickens was a realist who attempted to
portray the lives of slum dwellers and factory
workers, including children. One of his most famous
works is Oliver Twist, the story of a nine-yr-old
orphan who is being raised in a poor house.
• Victor Hugo was a realist who wrote Les
Miserables, the story of how hunger drove a
good man to crime.
• In art, realist painters attempted to represent
the realities of their time. Gustave Courbet
was a French realist who said, “I cannot paint
an angel, because I have never seen one.”
• Thomas Eakins shocked viewers with his
realistic painting of a medical class conducting
a dissection.
Eakins– –The
TheCalm
Gross
Courbet
Sea
Clinic
Courbet – Self-portrait
Courbet – The Stonebreakers
A New Direction in the Visual Arts
• By the 1840s, the art of photography was emerging.
Early pictures were called daguerreotypes after Louis
Daguerre, a French photographer.
• Eventually, photography came to be used to
represent the grim realities of life. Matthew Brady
recorded the American Civil War in photographs,
while other photographers documented the harsh
conditions in factories and slums.
• Photography posed a challenge to artists, who said
why try for realism when a camera can do the same
thing, only better?
• In the 1870s, a new movement, impressionism,
began in Paris. Artists like Claude Monet and Edgar
Degas did not blend their brush strokes. They
believed the human eye would mix the patches of
color.
• Impressionists focused on visual impressions rather
than realism.
• The postimpressionists developed a variety of styles.
Georges Seurat used small dots of color to define the
shapes of objects, while Vincent van Gogh used
sharp brush lines and bright colors.
Shoes
Van Gogh
Starry Night
Georges Seurat