Ferris Wheel
Colombian
Exposition
Chicago, USA
1893
Chapter 23
Mass Society in an
“Age of Progress,”
1871 - 1894
Mass Society
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Parts of the emergence of “mass society”
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Extension of voting rights to the lower classes
A better standard of living for the lower classes
Mass leisure (professional sports, amusement parks, etc.)
The “weekend” became established as a time of fun
By, 1871 the Focus of Europeans’ lives had become the National State, which
provided for mass education, public health & housing, economic growth, etc.
Growth of Industrial Prosperity: New Products & New
Markets
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Substitution of steel for iron
Electricity – (new type of energy that powered the 2nd Industrial Rev.)
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Thomas Edison (1847-1931) and Joseph Swan – light bulb
Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) – telephone, 1876
Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) – radio waves across the Atlantic, 1901
Transformation of factories
Alexander G. Bell
Thomas Edison
Joseph Swan
Guglielmo Marconi

Internal combustion engine – Gottlieb Daimler – invented the light
engine was a key development for the automobile
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Automobile and airplane
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Henry Ford (1863-1947) –
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mass production
Zeppelin airship, 1900
Wright brothers, 1903
Zeppelin Airship “Graf Zeppelin”
Wright Brothers & the First Flight
Henry Ford w/ a Model T
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New markets
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Increased wages- led to leisure time and activities
Competition – led to protective tariffs
Cartels – independent enterprises worked together to control prices & fix
production quotas.
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What is an example of a modern cartel (not drug cartel)?
Precision tools --- enabled manufactures to produce interchangeable
parts, which led to the creation of the assembly line for production.
Illustrated London News
Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of
Queen Victoria in 1897.
On the left are scenes from 1837, when
Victoria came to the British throne; on
the right are scenes from 1897.
Magazine’s conclusion:
“the most striking….evidence of
progress during the reign is the ever
increasing speed which the discoveries
of physical science have forced into
everyday life. Steam & electricity have
conquered time and space to a greater
extent during the last 60 years than all
the preceding 600 years witnessed.”
p. 706
New Patterns in an Industrial Economy
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Depression, 1873-1895
Economic boom after 1895
La belle époque (separate power point)
German Industrial Leadership
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Germany replaces Britain as the industrial leader of Europe
New areas of manufacturing
Increased competition among the European states for foreign
markets & gowning domestic demand for economic
development led to a strong reaction against free trade & the
imposition of steep protective tariffs by most nations
Europe’s two economic zones
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Advance industrial core of Great Britain, Belgium France, the
Netherlands, Germany, western part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
and northern Italy
Little industrial development in southern Italy, most of Austria-Hungary,
Spain, Portugal, the Balkan kingdoms, and Russia
Exports bound for Europe: Argentina sends Beef; Brazil sends
Coffee; Algeria sends Iron Ore; Java sends sugar & wool from
Australia
Map 23-1, p. 709
The Tomioka silk factory built in the 1870s in Japan
Industrialization in Japan was the result of Government planning & initiative
(Meiji Reformation)
p. 710
Women and Work: New Job Opportunities
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“Right to work”
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Ideal of domesticity – Working class organizations emphasized the
gender role of women as housewives.
Sweatshops
White-Collar Jobs
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Employment opportunities for women during the 2nd Industrial Revolution
changed in quality & quantity w/ the expansion of the service sector.
Increased white-collar jobs creates shortage of male workers opening up
opportunities for women
Secretaries and teachers
Freedom from domestic patterns
Prostitution – the rise in Prostitution can best be attributed to heavy
migration to cities by country women & their increasingly desperate
struggle for urban economic survival.
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1885- 60,000 prostitutes in London alone
Prostitution was licensed & regulated by government & municipal authorities in
some countries
Britain passed the CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACTS in the 1870’s & 1880’s
which gave authorities to check women for venereal diseases & put them in
“lock hospitals”.

Josephine Butler – objected to laws that punished women but not men who
suffered from venereal disease. Called the “shrieking sisters” but were able to
get the acts repealed in 1886.
The Telephone Exchange
p. 711
Organizing the Working Class

Socialist Parties
 Socialist parties
 German Social Democratic Party (SPD)
 German Social Democrats – By 1912 single largest political party in Germany
 Jean Jaurès (1859-1914) – leader of French socialists
 Social Democratic Labor Party
 Second International- met in 1889 differences among the delegates wreaked
havoc. One coordinated action was setting aside MAY 1st as “MAY DAY”
international “labor day”.
 Effects of the growth of socialist parties – the issue that brought socialists
together in the 19th century was the desire to improve working & living
conditions for most workers.

Eduard Bernstein (1850-1932), Evolutionary Socialism, 1899
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Demise of capitalism not near
Bourgeoisie expanding
Proletariat improving
Discarded class struggle
Evolution not revolution
Formation of labor unions – Trade Union movement prior to WWI varied
from country to country, but was generally allied w/ socialist parties.

First ½ of the 19thC. functioned primarily as mutual aid societies
“Proletarians of the World, Unite!”
Pictured here is a socialist-sponsored
poster that proclaims in German the
closing words of the Communist
Manifesto, Karl Marx
p. 712
Emergence of a Mass Society

Population Growth
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Rising Birthrate
Decline in the death rate
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Medical discoveries
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environmental conditions
Improved publication sanitation
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Development of vaccinations
Improved elimination of sewage
Improved nutrition
Increased emigration
Between
1850 & 1910,
European
population
increased
from
270 million to
460 million
Table 23-1, p. 714
The CHIEF Cause of
the Increasing
population was the
rising BIRTHRATE!
By 1914, 80% of
Britain’s population
lived in cities
Map 23-2, p. 715
The Emigrants
Painting by C. J. Staniland, 1880 ---- People are shown saying farewell to family members &
loved ones they might never see again. Ships were often crowded, making conditions
uncomfortable during the journey
p. 716
Some of the excess labor from underdeveloped areas migrated to the industrial regions of
Europe. When those cities couldn’t handle the over population – more emigrated from
Europe.
1880 – abt. 500,000 people were leaving Europe each year
1906-1910 – abt. 1.3 million people were leaving Europe each year, mostly from Southern
& Eastern Europe.
Table 23-2, p. 716
Transformation of the Urban Environment
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Growth of cities / Urbanization
Urban Reformers
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Edwin Chadwick, Rudolf Virchow
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Pointed to relationship between living conditions and disease
Buildings begin to be inspected for problems
Public Health Act of 1875 in Britain (pg. 717)
Clean water into the city
Expulsion of sewage
Housing Needs
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Reformer-philanthropists focused on relationship of living
conditions to political and moral health of the nation
Octavia Hill --- (read box doc. Pg. 718) Give the poor an environment they
could use to improve themselves.
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V. A. Huber, German reformer
Redesigning the cities;
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British Act of 1890 - empowered local authorities to purchase and
demolish slum dwellings, and rehouse their inhabitants.
Construct new buildings
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Running water
Sewage drained
Paris under construction – L’avenue de l'Opéra
p. 719
Paris AFTER construction – L’avenue de l'Opéra
p. 719
The Social Structure of the Mass Society

The Elite
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5 percent of the population that controlled 30 to 40 percent of
wealth
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The Middle Classes
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Upper middle class, middle middle-class, lower middle-class
Professionals
White-collar workers
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Landed aristocracy
The upper middle class
Wealthy upper middle class - Alliance of wealthy business elite and
traditional aristocracy
Industrial plutocrats
Middle class values came to dominate – were very concerned w/
propriety & shard values of hard work & Christian morality.
The Lower classes
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80 percent of the European population (largest segment of
European Society)
Agriculture
Urban working class: Skilled, semiskilled, unskilled workers
The “Woman Question”: The Role of Women
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Many women still aspired to the ideal of femininity
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Marriage the only honorable and available career
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Decline in the birth rate in part to some birth control:
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Elizabeth Poole Sanford said women should AVOID being self-sufficient
Coitus interruptus (“stupid, stupid, stupid” said Health Teacher Ms. Woodward)
Abortion (taking poison, falling down steps, back room operations)
Abandonment (leaving baby on doorsteps)
Infanticide (killing baby – usually suffocation)
The Middle-class and Working-class Families
 Domesticity
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Stressed functional knowledge for their children to prepare them for
their future roles.
Leisure time and holiday traditions
Daughters of working class families worked until married
1890 to 1914 higher paying jobs made it possible to live on the
husband’s wages
 Limit size of the family
 Reduced work week
p. 704
Many Happy Returns of the Day by William P. Frith (shows 3 generations of a family together)
p. 724
From a book of games
Boy Scouts founded by Robert Baden-Powell in
England – shows boy in full uniform
p. 724
Boy Scouts founded by
Robert Baden-Powell in
England – shows boy in
full uniform
Boy Scouts – founded in 1908 in
England for boys 12 to 18.
Adventure combined w/
discipline. Instilled ideals of
patriotism & self sacrifice.
“The REAL Boy Scout is not a
sissy. He adores his mother
but is not hitched to her apron
strings.”
p. 724
Education in the Mass Society
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After 1850, secondary education expanded
Mass education in state-run systems
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Liberal beliefs about education
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Personal and social development
Needs of industrialization
Need for an educated electorate
Differences in education of boys and girls
Demand for teachers
Increased literacy
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States began to offer public education
States assumed the responsibility for teacher training
By 1900 Germany, Great Britain, France, Denmark all had
achieved full literacy.
Growth of newspapers
A Women’s College – shows female medical students dissecting cadavers in anatomy class at the
Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia, PA
p. 726
Mass Leisure
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Amusement parks
Music and dance halls
Thomas Cook (1808-1892)
 Pioneer of mass tourism
Sports
 Became organized with rules
 Professional sports
 1863 – English Football Association
 1869 – National Baseball League (America's
pastime)
The Graphic: an International Soccer Match in 1872
(14 rules of play set by English Football Assoc est. Oct. 26, 1863)
p. 728
The Graphic
First match of the Ladies Football
Club in 1895
p. 728
Western Europe: The Growth of Political Democracy

Reform in Britain: William Gladstone
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Reform Act of 1867: Suffrage extended
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Reform Act of 1884 – gave English agricultural workers the right to vote
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Redistribution Act of 1885: Reorganized the election boroughs
 No more “pocket boroughs”
Salaries paid to members of the House of Commons, 1911
 More people could run for office
Home Rule for Ireland
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Charles Parnell called for “Home Rule” for Ireland – he wanted Ireland to get
its own parliament but remain part of Great Britain.
Reform in France
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Second Empire brought to an end w/ the defeat in the FrancoPrussian War
Universal male suffrage in 1871
Radical republicans formed an independent government
 The Commune: Fighting between the Commune and the government
 Suppression of the Commune in 1871 furthered widened the split
between French working and middle classes.
France will establish a Third Republic, 1875
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Boulanger Crisis ended with French citizens rallying to the cause of the Republic
The Growth of Political Democracy
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Spain
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King Alfonso XII
Liberals and Conservatives
Spanish-American War
Barcelona 1909
Italy
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Had pretensions of great power status
Sectional differences in Italy
Chronic turmoil beyond the government’s control
Both Spain & Italy remained second-rate European powers, less
transformed by the economic and cultural innovations of the age.
Central & Eastern Europe: Persistence of the Old Order
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Germany
 Trappings of parliamentary government
 1871 constitution
 Emperor commands the military in Prussian tradition
 Bismarck’s conservatism
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Kulturkampf – attack against Roman Catholics b/c he wants them to
obey Kaiser over Pope.
Bismarck passed Social welfare programs to woo workers away
from the Social Democratic Party (socialists)
Bismarck made coalitions to get what he wanted – then he dropped
them.
Austria-Hungary
 Austrian constitution of 1867
 Problem of minorities worsened with universal male suffrage,
1907 (Nationality problem remained unsolved)
Russia
 Alexander III, 1881-1894: Overturns reform and returns to
repressive measures
 Nicholas II, 1894-1917: Believed in absolute rule (autocracy)
 Russification = One language, One Czar, One Church
Bismarck & Kaiser
William II (Wilhelm)
1890, William II
FIRES Bismarck over
his plan to take more
repressive measures
against the Social
Democrats.
Cartoon shows
William on the throne
of cannonballs and
artillery w/ a baby
socialist (dynamite) in
his hand, Bismarck
waving goodbye to
Germany, and a
woman (Germania)
looking on with
concern.
p. 732
Chronology, p. 734
Timeline, p. 735
Discussion Questions
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What were the major changes of the second
industrial revolution on the lives of people?
What were the changes in urban sanitation
and health?
How did the industrialization of society
redesign the cities?
What were the changes in education and
leisure?
Why is the “old order” so persistent in Central
and Eastern Europe?