Life in the Emerging Urban Society
1848-1900
McKay Chapter 24
Homework
• Read McKay Chapter 24
• Quiz on Chapter 24 Friday!!!
Big Picture
European Culture 1848-1900
• The Conservative victory over the romantic,
liberal, socialist, nationalist movements of 1848
did not solve growing problems
– Urbanization, Industrialization
• Yet by 1900 public health greatly improved,
diets improved, life expectancy grew,
industrialization spread, the size of the middle
class grew, secularization grew, feminism
increased, value of science
Urban Life during the Early Industrial Revolution
Industry and the growth of cities
• congestion, filth, and disease existed
long before the Industrial Revolution
– Cities had higher death rates than
birth rates
• Industrial Revolution & population
growth made urban reform necessary
– In Britain, % of population living in
cities of 20,000
• 17 percent in 1801
• 54 percent in 1891
– Housing
• Overcrowded, lacked sanitation,
no yards
– Many people lived in sewage &
poo-poo kaa-kaa
• Manchester
– Over 200 people shared 1
outhouse
Manchester canal,
circa 1850
Passage de la Petite
Boucherie, Paris
Industry and the growth of cities
• Why the awful
conditions?
– A lack of
transportation
• “walking cities”
– Lack of sanitary
codes
– legacy of rural
housing also
contributed to the
problem
• Took dirt for
granted
Top of rue Champlain, Paris 1858
Gustave Doré: London, A Pilgrimage
•
Advent of the Public Health Movement
Edwin Chadwick
–
British commissioner in charge of poor
relief under Poor Law of 1834
–
Greatly influenced by Bentham
–
Jeremy Bentham
•
Philosopher who believed in
Utilitarianism
–
Public problems must be dealt with
rationally according “greatest good
for the greatest number”
• Chadwick came to believe that disease and
death caused poverty
• “Sanitary idea”
– believed that cleaning the city would
curtail disease
• proposed the installation of running
water and sewers
– New sanitation methods and public health
laws adopted all over Europe after 1840s
•
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The Bacterial Revolution
Miasmatic theory
–
Old Belief that disease was caused by bad
odors
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
–
French chemist who discovered Germ Theory
• germs caused disease
–
major breakthrough
• Pasteurization
– Organism growth that occurs during
fermentation could be eliminated via
heat
–
meant disease could be controlled through
vaccines
Robert Koch
–
Germany doctor identified harmful organisms
and their life cycles
–
vaccines developed
Joseph Lister
developed the concept of sterilization of wounds
Diphtheria, typhoid, typhus, cholera vanished
Mortality rates began to decline rapidly in
European countries
Operation using Lister's
carbolic spray invented in 1869
Improvements in Urban Planning
•
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Better urban planning contributed to
improved living conditions
Napoleon III led the way in Paris
Motivated by desire to better lives of
citizens, provide employment, glory for
himself
Georges Haussmann (1809-1884)
– Alsatian Urban planner
– Demolished entire neighborhoods in
Isle de Cite
– Transformed Paris during 1850-60s
Pre 1850 Paris
– A “labyrinth of narrow, dark streets,
severely overcrowded”
– “walking city”
– Very high death rates
Haussmann’s Paris and Transporation
•
Paris became a model city
–
Broad, straight, tree lined boulevards cut
through the center of the city
– Prevent barricade building
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Parks created throughout the city
Sewers improved & aqueducts built
Improved housing (especially for middle
class)
Transportation
–
•
Horse drawn streetcars came in 1870s
Electric streetcars
–
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–
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Came after 1890
revolutionized urban life and enabled the
cities to expand
Cheaper, faster, cleaner, more
comfortable
Carried 6.7 billion riders in Euro cities by
1910
The Boulevard Saint-Michel by
Jean-François Raffaëlli
-ironically had been a Parisian
realist painter and printmaker
turned Impressionist
The avenue de l'Opéra as seen
by Pissaro
Enrique Martínez Cubells’ La Puerta del Sol (Sun Gate), Madrid circa 1900
• Note
prominence of
bourgeoisie
• Threshold of
old world
transportation
and new
Pre Haussman Paris
Post Haussman Paris
Rich and poor and those in between
Rich and poor and those in between
•
Social structure
– Between about 1850 and 1906,
the standard of living for the
average person improved
substantially
– But differences in wealth
continued to be enormous
• Wealthiest 5% owned 33% of
the wealth
– society remained stratified in a
number of classes
– Yet did not split into tow sharply
defined groups as Marx had
predicted
– Diverse social and economic
hierarchy emerged
Paris Street; Rainy Day ,1877
by the Gustave Caillebotte
Figures are dressed in the height
of contemporary Parisian fashion.
She wears a hat, veil, diamond
earring, demure brown dress, and
a fur lined coat. The man wears a
moustache, topcoat, frock coat,
top hat, bow tie, starched white
shirt …middle class. Yet some
working class figures may be
seen in the background; a maid in
a doorway, the decorator carrying
a ladder …
Upper Class
•
Wealthy classes
– Aristocrats, nobility, lords, large
landowners
– Power somewhat diminished after
1848
– But still held lots of influence
(especially in Eastern Europe)
– Had many servants
– Lived in lavish townhouses during “the
season” (winter) and country estates
during summer
– Arranged marriages
• Rose from Titanic
• Often married wealthy middle class
• Titles for cash
– Attended exclusive schools
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The Middle Classes
Upper middle class
– composed of successful
business families who were
attracted to the aristocratic
lifestyle (Nouveau Riches), (Cal
from Titanic)
Middle middleclass group
– contained merchants, lawyers,
and doctors--people who were
well off but not wealthy
Lower middle class
– shopkeepers, small
businessmen, and white-collar
workers
– Experts
• engineers, chemists,
accountants, teachers
• Managers of new department
stores
Middle-class culture united these sub-classes
•
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Lifestyle and culture united middle
classes
Food= largest expense
– Favored large dinner parties once a
week (Big meat eaters)
– “servant keeping classes”
– Great # of servants higher status
– fashionable dressing, apartment
housing, and good education
"The Corner of the Table, 1904“
– Books, travel, music, and family
by Paul Chabas
important values of “leisure”
Code of expected behavior
– stressed hard work, self-discipline,
religion, and restraint from vices
– Victorian morality
• Separate sphere = home
• Known for prudishness
• Corset, Crinoline dress
•
Child rearing
Urban improvements and Bacteria
Revolution greatly reduced infant
mortality
• Middle class values centered on the
family
• Mothers encouraged to love their
children
– more breastfeeding and less
swaddling and abandonment of
babies
– fathers were urged to help in
child rearing
– Why?
• Birthrate declined
– each child became more
important and could receive
more advantages
The working classes
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Vast majority of people (4 out of 5 by 1900)
had varying lifestyles and little unity
"labor aristocracy"
– Highly skilled workers
– Factory bosses, construction bosses, cabinet
makers, jewelers
– Vicarious position because of rapid
automation of formerly skilled crafts
• considered themselves the leaders of the
working class
– Adopted middle class values
• Committed to family and economic
improvement
• Valued education, separate spheres
• Frowned on heavy drinking, sexual
promiscuity
–
“the path to the brothel leads through the tavern”
and from there total ruin
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The Working Classes
Semiskilled workers
– Carpenters, bricklayers, and some factory
workers
Unskilled workers
– factory workers, teamsters, day laborers,
rag gatherers
– Domestic Servants
• mostly female, were a large unskilled
subgroup
• 33% of girl in Britain between 15-20
• Drawn to occupation from rural setting
because of adventure, marriage
prospects
– “Sweated industries“
• Women who did piece-work from home
• Very low wages
• Decorated dishes, embroidered linens,
did laundry, ironing, sewed clothes
Premarital sex and marriage
•
"Romantic love"
encouraged among working
classes
• economic considerations
still strong in middle classes
• Premarital sex remained
high but
• After 1850
– Illegitimacy decreased
– indicating the growing
morality and stability of
the working class
Leisure Activities of Working Classes
• Drinking
– favorite leisure activity
– "drinking problem” (drunkenness) declined in the
late 19th century
• influence of middle class and upper working
class values
• Cafes and pubs became respectable, even for
women
– Pubs became centers for working class politics
• Spectator Sports grew
– Soccer, horse racing most popular
• Ironically fueled literacy among working classes
– Wanted to be able to read racing forms to
place bets
– “cruel sports” of bullbaiting, etc. declined
• Music and Vaudeville Theaters popular
– 50 in London alone in 1900
– Favorite topics included drunkenness, premarital
sex, marriage problems, and mothers-in-law
Click for Clip
Religion and the Working Classes
• Church Attendance declined during
late 1800s
• Why?
– Lack of churches in urban areas
– Catholic and Protestant churches
viewed as conservative,
traditional institutions that upheld
the power and position of the
ruling elites
– Working class were anti-church
but not anti religion
– Religious organizations linked
with an ethnic group (e.g., Irish
and Jewish), and not the state,
tended to thrive
– Middle Class stressed church
attendance
St. Peter’s RCC, Stalybridge,
Cheshire, UK
Prostitution
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Post-Impressionist
155 thousand registered in Paris
Henri de ToulouseMiddle and upper classes fueled itLautrec
Men commonly turned to
prostitutes because
–
marriages were so often made
later in life, especially in the
middle and upper classes
My Secret Life
–
Anonymous autobiography of
wealthy middle class
–
Revealed dark side of urban
society
–
Some prostitutes operated in
business-like matter
–
Some Working class girls
corrupted by hot meals, baths
For some women was a stage of
life, like being domestic servant
The Triumph of Science and Industry
•
Scientific knowledge began to have
growing influence on human thought
Scientific Revolution had not played
large role technological breakthroughs
Industrial Revolution and technology
great increased scientific inquiry and
R&D
Electricity become commercial form of
energy after 1890
German chemist revolutionized even
fashion with dyes derived from coal coke
Second Industrial Revolution
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Burst of technological innovation and industry
after 1850
Scientific achievements strengthened
faith in progress and gave science
unrivaled prestige
German chemist created
the first colorfast green
dye using copper and
arsenic; known as
Scheele’s Green in 1814
Social science and evolution
•
Auguste Comte
– Father of Sociology
– tried to study society scientifically
– using data collected by the
government to find social laws
•
Comte argued
– The third and final stage of
knowledge is that of science, or
what he called the "positivist
method"
•
Would allow social scientists to
develop a disciplined and harmonic
society ruled by science and experts
•
Theory also shows increase in
concept of evolution
–
–
Marx’s stages to Communism
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
Social science and evolution
•
Origin of the Species
–
Theory of evolution
–
Charles Darwin
–
English naturlist
–
5 year cruise to S. America and Pacific
–
Collected and studied specimens of
different animal species
–
theorized that all life had evolved gradually
from a common origin through an
unending "struggle for survival" that led to
the survival of the fittest by natural
selection
–
Social Darwinists, such as Herbert
Spencer, applied Darwin's ideas to human
affairs
–
Fit nicely with Bourgeoisie
weltanschauung
Satirical cartoon by Thomas Nast,
from Harper's Weekly, August 19,
1871. Victorian society was
shocked by the publication in 1859
of Charles Darwin's Origin of
Species and in 1871 of his Descent
of Man, both of which seemed to
indicate that man was descended
from the apes. Here the artist puts
all the dismay into the mouth of the
“defrauded” ape.
Realism in literature
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Literature of post 1850 Europe to 1890s
Rejected romantic notions of emotion and free will
Objectively studied & wrote about
–
everyday life
–
taboo subjects
•
Sex, violence, alcoholism, poverty
–
urban working class
Were strict determinists (Fatalistic)
–
human actions were caused by unalterable natural laws
Emile Zola
–
French realist
–
Carefully researched and observed urban slums, strikes
Count Leo Tolstoy
–
War and Peace set during Napoleon’s invasion in
Russia
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Fatalistic theory of history
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But central message is love, trust and family are only
enduring values