Mass Society in
an Age of Progress
1850-1914
Second Industrial
Revolution
• Last ½ of 19th century
• Four major aspects
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Steel production
Oil
Electricity
Chemicals
• Created growing demand for
experts with specialized
knowledge
• By 1890’s Germany became
most powerful industrial
economy in Europe
• Continued to attract huge
numbers of workers to cities
New Products &
Inventions
• Electricity
– Light bulb: Thomas Edison
– Telephone: Alexander Graham
Bell 1876
– Gramophone: Edison 1877
– Motion Picture: Lumiere 1895
– Radio: Guglielmo Marconi
1901
• Internal Combustion Engine
(Gottlieb Daimler )
– Mass production: Henry Ford
– Zeppelin Airship 1900
– Wright Brothers 1903
Women’s Roles
• “Right to work”
• Ideal of domesticity
• New job opportunities
– Department store clerks,
stenographers, secretaries,
waitresses, nurses (white collar)
– Domestic servants
• By 1900 over ½ of working women
were domestic servants
• After 1850 the work of most
wives was increasingly distinct &
separate from their husbands
– Husbands became primary wage
earners
– Wife dominated the home domain
• Middle-class women began to
organize & resist their 2nd class
status to husbands
Socialist
Movements
• Main Goal: advance the
cause of the proletariat
(working class)
– Saw nationalism as a tool of
the rulers
– Opposed to war
• Marxism led the negative
response to
industrialization
– First International: 1864
– Growth after 1871 was
phenomenal
• Developed by Karl Marx &
Industrialization &
Friederich Engles
the Marxist Response
• The Communist Manifesto
(1848)
– Considered the “Bible” of
Communism
– The economic interpretation of
history
– Class struggle
– Theory of Surplus Value
– Socialism was inevitable
– Violent revolution
– “dictatorship of the proletariat”
– Classless society
Revisionism
• As workers gained the right to
vote & participate in gov’t,
their attention focused more
on elections that revolutions
– Unions accepted & focused on
bread-&-butter issues
• Collective bargaining officially
recognized as desirable by
unions
• Eduard Bernstein: Evolutionary
Socialism (1899)
Eduard Bernstein
– Argued Marx’s predictions of
ever-greater poverty for workers
& ever-greater wealth in fewer
hands had been proved false
Impact of
Socialism
• Impact on politics became profound
• Germany: Social Democratic Party
(S.P.D.)
– Marxist in philosophy
– Bismarck forced to institute sweeping
reforms to minimize threat from left
– By 1912, the S.P.D. was the largest
party in the Reichstag
• France: socialists gained seats in
Chamber of Deputies
• England
– Fabian Society
– Independent Labor Party
– Foundations for social welfare state
created in decade prior to WWI –
meant to guarantee each citizen a
decent standard of living
Anarchy
• Spun off from the
mainstream socialist
movement
• Sought to destroy the
centralized state
• Mikhail Bakunin
– Russian nobleman, became
the most influential anarchist
• Strongest in Spain & Italy
• Political assassinations by
anarchists shook the political
world between 1881 & 1901
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Deaths of 6 national leaders
Alexander II of Russia 1881
King Umberto I of Italy 1900
President William McKinley
1901
19th Century
Society
• Increased standard of living by the 2nd
half of 19th century
– Still huge gap between wealthy & working
class
– Became “golden age of the middle class”
• Industrial & urban development made
society more diverse & less unified
• Diversity within middle
class/bourgeoisie (15% of population)
– Upper middle-class: bankers, ind. leaders,
top gov’t officials
– Diversified middle class: small
businessmen, professionals, merchants,
doctors, lawyers
– Lower middle class (petite bourgeoisie):
small merchants, shopkeepers, teachers,
clerks, master craftsmen
• Grew from 7% to 20% of population by 1900
• Women worked as store clerks,
stenographers, secretaries, nurses
Characteristics of
the middle class
• Emphasized individual
liberty & respectability
based on economic success
• Families emphasized
frugality & planning for the
future
• Gained political influence
through increased
landownership (tied to
voting rights)
• Saw family as the foundation
of the social order
• Education & religion were
extremely important
Working Class
• 80 % of the population
• Less unified & homogenous than
middle classes
• Highly skilled workers at the top
(about 15% of population):
“labor aristocracy”
– Construction bosses, foremen,
highly skilled craftsmen
• Semi-skilled workers: carpentry,
bricklaying, successful factory
workers
• Unskilled workers & domestic
servants (mostly women) were
at the bottom
– By 1900 half of working women
were domestic servants
• Romantic love became the most
important reason for marriage by
Changing Family
1850
• Middle-class females were
monitored extremely closely by
parents
– Chastity paramount
– Middle-class boys not monitored
nearly as much
• High rate of illegitimacy decreased
after 1850
– Rate of premarital sex the same,
but more couples married if
pregnancy occurred
• Fidelity emphasized in middle class
• Prostitution: middle & upper class
men constituted most of the
customers (married late)
Child-rearing
• Middle-Class
– Lower mortality rates =
parents becoming more
emotionally involved in
children’s lives
– Married couples decreased
the # of children they had
– Increase in books
published on child-rearing
– Parents much more intent
on improving the
economic & social
condition of their children
• Working-class families
Child-Rearing
– Boys & girls went to work
when they reached
adolescence
– Kids did not remain
economically dependent on
their families (unlike middleclass)
– Young working-class
adolescents broke away from
the family more easily when
emotional ties became
oppresive
– In 20th century, middle-class
youths would follow this
pattern
• State’s role in education increased
Education
– Further secularization of society
– Emphasized loyalty & service to the state
– By 1900 in England, all children 5-12
years old were required to attend school
(education was free)
– In France, the Ferry Laws required
children ages 3-13 to attend school (also
free)
• Significant increase in literacy
– Men had higher rates of literacy
– Urbanites more literate than rural
– Higher literacy rate in northern &
western Europe
• Girls had less access to secondary
education than boys
– Education seen as a means of improving
economic & marriage prospects for girls
Increased
Consumption
• Increased leisure time &
increased money to spend
• Sports attracted spectators &
participants
– Sports clubs grew
– Soccer, rugby, bicycle &
automobile races, track & field
– Huge bicycle craze swept Europe
– Became organized with rules
– Increased numbers of women
took part
• Women abandoned more restricted
clothing
– Sports culture mirrored the
growth of aggressive nationalism
• Social Darwinists believed that sports
competition confirmed the
superiority of certain racial groups
More Leisure &
Spending
• Cafes & taverns
• Department stores
grew
• Dance halls, concerts, &
plays drew thousands
of people each week
• Amusement parks
• Mass tourism
– Thomas Cook
Age of Mass
Politics
• The Paris Commune
– Napoleon III’s Second Empire
ends with defeat by Prussia
(1870 Franco-Prussian War)
– New National Assembly
created
– However, a radical communist
gov’t (Paris Commune) took
over Paris
– From March-May 1871, the
Paris Commune fought a
bloody struggle with troops of
the National Assembly & lost
3rd
French
Republic
• Established in 1875
• Constitution provided for a republic
– Chamber of Deputies had most
power.
– President was weak.
• Reforms
– Trade unions legalized
– Established secular education (public
schools & compulsory education)
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Boulanger Crisis
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Georges Boulanger gained support
of the military
Plotted a coup
The Republic summoned
Boulanger to trial but he fled to
Belgium & committed suicide
Resulted in greater confidence in
the Republic
Eastern Europe: • Germany
– Parliamentary gov’t
Persistence of
• Bicameral legislature established
Old Order
(Reichstag)
– 1871 constitution
– Emperor commands the military
in Prussian tradition
– Bismarck’s conservatism
• Kulturkampf
– Sought to limit the influence of the
Catholic Party
• Social Democratic Party (SPD)
– Bismarck instituted sweeping reforms
to minimize the threat from the
socialists
– Despite better standard of living,
workers did not leave the SPD
Russia
• Alexander II
– Possibly the greatest czar since
Catherine the Great.
– Believed serfdom had kept
Russia from modernizing
– 1861: Emancipation Act
abolished serfdom
– Assassinated in 1881 by
anarchist radicals who bombed
his carriage.
• Alexander III
– Most reactionary czar (undo
reforms of Alexander II)
– “Autocracy, Orthodoxy,
Russification”
– Anti-semitism