Chapter 9 Section 3
Changing Attitudes and Values
Lesson Objectives
• Explain what values shaped the new social
order.
• Understand how women and education
sought change.
• Learn how science challenged existing beliefs
Social Classes in the late 1800’s
• Small upper class, nobility &
super-rich industrialists
• Middle class – group that grew
the fastest in 1800’s
– Upper middle class – doctors,
scientists, lawyers
– Lower middle class – teachers,
office workers, shop keepers
• Lower classes
– Working class – large numbers
in U.S. & Western Europe, lived
in tenements near factories
– Peasants/farmers – more in
less industrialized nations
Middle Class Values
• Way of life>
RESPECTABILITY
– Families lived in large
house or apartment house
– Strict code of etiquette –
rules of social behavior
– How to dress, when to give
dinner parties, how long to
mourn, when to write
letters, etc
– Children “to be seen, not
heard”
– Even small middle class
homes had servants
Middle Class Values
• Courtship & marriage
– Families had much to say as
to whom children married
– Falling in love was becoming
more accepted
– Strict rules of courtship
• Cult of domesticity –
idealized women and the
home; woman’s place was
in the home
– “Home sweet home”
– Ideal woman = tender, selfsacrificing care-giver, nest for
children, peaceful home for
husband
Women and educators tried to bring
about change
•
•
•
•
•
Women campaigned for variety of rights
Fairness in marriage, divorce & property laws (won right to own property in late
1880’s)
Supported temperance movement – limit or ban use of alcoholic beverages
Before 1850, women leaders in union movement, abolition of slavery > made
women realize their own laws were restricted
Women’s suffrage – women’s right to vote, became an issue in late 1800’s
– Faced intense opposition (cult of domesticity)
– Edges of western world, New Zealand, western U.S. territories gave women the right to vote
before 1900
Public education & higher education
• Late 1800’s reformers got
many governments to set
up public schools
• Require basic education for
all children
– Three R’s – reading writing &
‘arithmetic > better citizens
– Need for literate work force
– Taught punctuality, obedience
to authority, disciplined work
habits & patriotism (religion
in European schools)
Secondary schools (high schools in U.S.)
• Classical languages
(Latin & Greek), history
& math for middle class
sons
• Middle class daughters
attended finishing
schools – marry well &
be better wives
Colleges & Universities
• Most students were sons
of upper & middle classes
• Curriculum – ancient
history, languages
philosophy, religion, law
• Late 1800’s chemistry &
physics added;
engineering schools
opened
• 1840’s few women’s
colleges: Bedford College,
England; Mt. Holyoke,
U.S.
Science challenged existing beliefs
• Atomic theory – John
Dalton (early 1800’s)
modern atomic theory
– Showed how different
kinds of atoms combine
to make all chemical
substances
• Dmitri Mendeleyev –
table of all elements
according to weight
basis for periodic table
Science challenged existing beliefs
• Age of earth – (1820)
Charles Lyell Principles
of Geology
– Evidence that the earth
was formed over millions
of years
– (1856) workers in
Neander Valley in
Germany found remains
of prehistoric people –
Neanderthals
Science challenged existing beliefs
• Charles Darwin (1859) published
On the Origin of the Species
– All forms of life evolved into
present state over millions of years
– Theory of natural selection
• Used Thomas Malthus’s (economist)
idea that all plants & animals
produced more offspring that the
food supply could support
• Members of species compete to
survive
– Nature “selected” those with best
physical traits to adapt
• Survival of the fittest
– Brought debates between
scientists & religious leaders
because Darwinism disputed
creationism (debate continues to
the present)
Social Darwinism
• Social Darwinism – used Darwin’s theory of survival of
the fittest in war to weeded out weak nations
• Survival of the fittest in business put weak companies
out of business
• Encouraged racism – belief that one racial group is
superior to another
– Some Europeans & Americans claimed success of western
civilization was because of superiority of white race
– Used this as reason for dominating colonial holdings &
pushing Native Americans onto reservations
• Result> These ideas led to global
expansion/imperialism, discrimination & segregation
Role of religion in urban society
• Christian churches & Jewish
synagogues remained center of
communities; urged reforms
– Catholic priests & nuns set up
schools & hospitals in urban slums
– Jewish organizations like B’nai
B’rith provided social services
• Social gospel – movement of
Protestant Christians to social
service
– Reforms in housing, health care &
education
• William & Catherine Booth (1878)
founded the Salvation Army in
London