Progress and its Discontents

Economic Transformations Understandings of Nature and Society The Belle Epoque Attacks on Liberal Civilization Domestic Politics

Large-scale institutions business corporations, government agencies, political parties, labor unions, national associations, and newspapers became essential to a new society characterized by rapid economic growth and broader political participation Rising standards of living, democracy, education, and leisure AND rampant materialism, moral standards, and erosion of community

Economic Transformations

Large-scale production with new technologies emerged The Second Industrial Revolution which led to a rise in consumerism department stores and merchandising

The Second Industrial Revolution

New Technologies A whole new industry developed to produce and supply electricity. Thomas Edisons incandescent light bulb, 1870s leading to central power stations The steam turbine, shown in the 1880s to be more efcient than the steam engine fueled by oil as well as coal

Greater and cheaper productions emerged in various elds telephone (1876); Home sewing machines New chemical processes and synthetics led to improved products ranging from dyes, textiles, and paints to fertilizers and explosives

The automobile in the 1890s, the airplane in the 1900s, and the radio a decade later were all greeted with enthusiasm and heightened mass expectations that technological progress would continue to improve everyday life By 1890 Europe was producing even more steel than iron

Germanys Economic Growth

Already rich in natural resources, Germany acquired more raw materials as well as factories with the annexation of AlsaceLorraine Its famous education system produced ample numbers of the administrators and engineers the commercial sector now required

German factories, being newer than those of Britain or France, employed the latest and most efcient equipment, obtaining the necessary capital through a modern banking structure Germany became preeminent in new elds such as chemicals and electricity

Older Industrial Economies

By the turn of the century, Great Britain was clearly being surpassed in some of the critical areas of production by both Germany and the United States British plants and equipment were oldowners hesitated to modernize English schooling remained weak in technical subjects and provided less opportunity for social mobility

Italy, Japan, Russia, and Sweden industrialized though seriously lacked natural resources Industrialization no longer depended so directly on the possession of critical resources like coal and iron ore

The Spread of Industrialization

Agriculture

The percentage of the population that made its living in agriculture continued to decline In France, Netherlands, and Swedenagriculture continued to play a larger role Specialization emerged, e.g. Denmark: a highly capitalized and protable dairy industry Importing grains became common internationally. The most common response was protective tariffs

The Long Depression

The second industrial revolution occurred in one of the longest and most severe periods of deation in European history. From the 1870s to 1896, prices, interest rates, and prots fell

Urbanization and Demographic Change

The Demographic Transition: Declining Rates of Mortality and Fertility Birthrates had begun to decline, and it did so because mortality rates were falling still more rapidly Falling mortality rates with declining birthrates demographic transition to modern demographics

Lower mortality rates reected the benets of industrial prosperity declining birthrates the result of widening use of contraception bourgeois values later marriage, fewer births, smaller families

Understandings of Nature and Society

Scientic discoveries underlay technological innovation far more directly than in the rst industrial revolution Research demanded more systematic organization and larger and more expensive laboratories The educated public could understand many of the new scientic theories, and scientic ideas were an important part of the general discourse about religion, progress, and ethics

The Conquests of Science A disturbing theory of human

Biology: The Darwinian Revolution
developmentCharles Darwins On the Origin of Species Alfred R. Wallace independently developed a similar theory The variety of species is potentially inniterejecting the classical and Christian ideas of immutable forms; only those well adapted to their environment survived to reproduce

Medicine

The identication of germs and germ theory Louis Pasteur, pasteurization, immunology Joseph Listergerms could be killed by carbolic acid Robert Koch showed that different diseases were caused were caused by distinct microbes; sanitation and public heath became systematic sciences

Physics and Chemistry

Periodic law and periodic table was published by Dmitry Mendeleev in 1869, charting the atomic weight *Thermodynamics, the study of the relationship between heat and mechanical energy became the core of 19th century physics Michael Faradaymagnetism, magnetic elds induce electric currentsallowing for the creation of the electric generator

Social Science and Ideas of Progress

Auguste Comte

Philosopher Auguste Comte sought to erect a comprehensive philosophical system that would encompass all human knowledge positivism The key to civilization is humanitys understanding of the worldthree historical stages (1) theological stage (2) metaphysical stage (3) positive stageobservation and science culminating in sociology

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

He was determined to reconcile contradictions between science and faith, Christianity and the state The dialectical process thesis, antithesis, synthesis form the dialectic; the synthesis becomes the new thesis

Karl Marx
Trained in German philosophy; marx outlined his theory of history in the Communist Manifesto added by Friedrich Engels published just before the revolutions of 1848 1849 to 1883Das Kapital

Marxs Theory of History

He built a comprehensive philosophical system inspired by Hegel dialectical materialism Class conict is the mechanism of historical progress, and the triumph of the proletariat will bring a new synthesis, a classless societyin the new era the state wold wither away

Marxism has deeply affected all modern thought, shaped the policies of all sorts of governments, and provided a core for some of the more powerful political movements of the last hundred years *Social Darwinisma theory largely propelled by Thomas Huxley under biological determinism

The Belle Epoque

Thirty years or so before 1914 has come to be called the Belle Epoque, a phase evocative of the Paris of the 1890s The industrial age fostered a culture of mass consumption

The Culture of Capitalism Mass Culture and the Business of Entertainment Entertainment and sport became professions Paid singers in pubs or cafes or beer hallsopera, theater, and symphony became mass consumptions The English Week provided leisure time and a rise in real wages allowed many to spend on entertainment

Charlie Chaplin

Early silent motion lm was gaining in popularity Women played a larger role in these social settingsthey were consumers in department stores, spectators in dance halls, and other pubic areas Their mobility worried many conservatives

A shift in sports occurred baiting animals and battles shifted to boxing, cricket, soccer, and rugby Leagues were formed and matches became important communal events Upper-middle classes took to more individualistic games like golf and tennis Athletics emphasized manly virtues like perseverance, sacrice for the team, and playing by the rules

The Rise of Mass Media popular novels sought a wide audience rather than a learned one A majority of the adult population was literate; education was made universal no longer for the wealthy alone Wide schooling and education was a product of Industrialization

Artistic Modernism
A trend toward national styles emerged; folk elements and distinct traditions leading to recognizable national identity Artists became social critics, primarily issues of politics and values that troubled society

Divergent Schools
Naturalists claimed that the artist, like a scientist, should present life in objective detail after careful research Determinism sought the view that behavior was determined by social circumstance or blood inheritance, was a favorite theme in this Darwinian age

Realistic painters of midcentury had turned to scenes from ordinary life. Like Englands pre-Raphaelites, who took their name from the pious and simpler art of the early Renaissance

Toward a More Subjective Art

*Impressionists broke with this tradition to concentrate on capturing the effects of light and color Claude Monet Vincent van Gogh