Life During the Industrial
Revolution
McKay: Chapter 24 Pictionary Exercise
"The greatest good for the greatest number"
• Jeremy Bentham, Writer early 1800s, founder of utilitarianism
• All social/public problems must be dealt with using above framework
"Sanitary idea"
• Edwin Chadwick, a Benthamite convinced disease caused poverty
• 3 yr study colleting data, publish 1842 shows disease and filth related
• Solution- clean water, public baths, street cleaning, firefighting,
sewers cheaper
• Way to get rid of excrement
• Incredibly significant- leads to 1848 Public Health Law and creation of
• National Health board
• Break away from fatalism
"Miasmatic theory of disease"
• Theory that you get diseases by breathing in bad
odors
• Based on empirical observation but a bit incomplete
as theories go
• Handicaps reform in control of disease
• Limits: Thames river smells no one near it
necessarily sick…
"Germ theory of disease"
• 1840’s-1850’s recognize disease spread through filth, not caused by it
• Developed by Pasteur study of fermentation and Koch study of
bacteria
• By 1870s discoveries of bacterial role leads to development of
vaccines
"Pasteurization"
• Louis Pasteur, French chemist studies fermentation
• recognizes it depends on growth of living organisms
• Can limit this through heating product (Pasteurization)
• Implies disease itself caused by controllable germs
“Antiseptic principle"
• Builds off of Germ Theory
• Joseph Lister recognizes death rate higher with compound fractures
than simple
• Pasteur 1865 shows air full of bacteria
• start using chemical disinfectant on wounds…works wonders
• by 1880s start using on tools and hands as well…
DEATH
Decline of mortality rate
• Post 1890, bacterial revolution along with public health
improvements
• mortality rates down, awful disease gone
• by 1910 death rate in city same as Country, infant mortality down as
well
Boulevards transform Paris
• Public health only part of problem still have
overcrowding, poor housing,Transportation issues
• Key is effective planning, France takes lead under
Napoleon III and Haussman
• Transform Paris over 20 yrs starting in 1850
• Raze buildings to create wide tree lined streets
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Cannot put barricades in streets now
Allows free flow of traffic
demolish worst slums in city
stimulate construction better homes
• Rest of Europe follows
Electric streetcars relieve overcrowding
• 1870s horsedrawn carriages carry ppl all over
• 1890’s take American tech. with electric streetcar, more reliable
comfy, cheaper
• Faster
• Can now expand cities, helps with housing issues, suburbs develop
1850=
1906=
Real wages doubled between 1850-1906
• Differences in Social classes remains large but standard of living rises
greatly
• Wages double Britain, ordinary folk take big step forward
RICH
POOR
The gap between rich and poor was huge
• 1900 top 5% receive 33% national income
• top 20% get 50-60% national income
• bottom 80% get only 40-50% national income
• bottom 30% gets 10% or less of national income
• Income taxes limited or nonexistent
• gap as large 1900 as during agrarian times
The upper-middle class imitated the aristocracy
• Middle class large, diverse split into 3 subclasses
• Upper Middle Class generally families in banking or industry
• Imitate upper class
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Buy Country Home/ Beach Home
# servants important
Have private coaches/carriages
Devote more time to culture than before
Some even enter/ally with aristocracy through marriage
trade cash for title (Which more important??)
The labor aristocracy imitated the middle class
• Make up about 15% of labor class
• Make about 2/3 amount money as MC but double unskilled labor
class
• Most construction bosses, foremen very proud of rise to power
• Almost puritanical values, strong commitment to family and
advancement
• fear falling down a level, value education and nice homes
• frown on drinking (organize temperance movement)
Engineers and managers joined the middle class
• Explosion of technology and industry creates large need for
specialized
• Knowledge
• Engineers, architects, chemists, accountants, managers become
important
• Create certifications necessary for entry
• Members of Middle Middle Class
Middle class entertainment centered around the
dinner party
• Food largest item in household budget
• “Siesta” idea
• Dinner party very popular, 8-12 ppl once a month or so
• 8-9 courses
The middle class valued servants, clothes, and
education
• Servants: 1 full time to cook and clean)
• more money = more servants
• symbol
• Clothes: Cost of clothing down, begin to care for accumulation
• Clothes conscious… Positive???
• Education: Parents want to provide for kids with constant rise in edu.
• Novels, music, and foreign travel three popular methods
The labor aristocracy was often in danger of
being replaced by machines
Over the 19th century, drinking declined as it was
less socially acceptable
• Commonality amongst MC is adherence to strict code of morals
• Hard work, traditional Christian morality
• If fall into poverty it is your own fault
• drinking gambling denounced
1/7
One out of seven working people were
domestic servants
• Largest group in labor class= unskilled laborers
• Largest group of unskilled laborers are domestic servants
• Stat from Britain 1911, mostly women
• Many recent migrants from rural areas
• Hard work, low pay below butlers and housekeepers (Hierarchy…)
• WHY DO IT?
• More men in city…marriage possibilities
• Wages low but higher than Countryside
• City thrill attractive
Many women worked in the sweated industries
• Many women join to earn extra $ for family
• Thrives post 1850, resembles putting out industry
• Work at home or in small group paid by piece, not hr
• Most make clothing, put tailors out of business
The working classes preferred sports and music
• Cruel sports decline, modern sports like racing and soccer emerge
• gambling still big- actually helps with literacy
• Music Halls also popular equivalent of Upper Class Opera Houses
• We see leadership of Upper Classes in this
Church attendance declined among the working
class
• People still have faith (baptisms still high)
• Church construction fails to keep up with population growth in cities
• Churches seen as conservative institutions that defend order of day
• Poor associate church with the system that they resent
• Lack of separation between church and state helps this
Illegitimacy Explosion
• 1750-1850 explosion of illegitimate births
• 1/3 in cities born out of marriage
• Post 1850 illegitimacy down, still high % brides preggers
• seem to have as much premarital sex as before but more pressure to
marry
Prostitution flourished in the late 19th
century
- Paris, 1871-1903 155,000 registered prostitutes, 750,000 suspected
- Men of all classes visit
- “My Secret Life” anonymous 11 volume account of life in this world
Women became full-time homemakers and
mothers
• IR brings great change in gender roles (specifically in women)
• Separate spheres develop, men at work, women at home
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Pre IR family works together
control home manage $ make all domestic decisions
Only work outside home if very poor
well paying jobs off limits to women, lower wages than men
• Some fight for rights (Feminist organizations earn some victories)
• 1882 right to own property
• Socialist fight
Emotional bonds between mother and child
strengthened
• Begin to love and coddle babies (In comfort classes 1st)
• More people breast feed, books published (“Mr. and Mrs. and Baby”)
• Fewer abandoned babies, swaddling decreases
The birthrate declined
• People began to limit the # of children they had so that they could
more
• adequately care for those they had
• 1860 avg. 6 kids, 1890 4, 1920 2-3, continues to decline to WWII
• Parents want to improve social economic standing and kids future too
• No longer economic asset, less kids means more education, travel…
• Possibly become too involved?