24 progress and its discontents

7/31/2019 24 Progress and Its Discontents

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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


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Large-scale

production with

new

technologies

emerged

The Second

Industrial

Revolution

which led to a

rise in

consumerismdepartment

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 efficient

than the steam engine

fueled by oil as well as coal

Greater and cheaperproductions emerged in

various fields

telephone (1876); Homesewing machines

New chemical processesand synthetics led to

improved products rangingfrom dyes, textiles, andpaints to fertilizers and

explosives


3/13

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 acquiredmore raw materials as well

as factories with the

annexation of Alsace-

Lorraine

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 efficient

equipment, obtaining the

necessary capital through

a modern banking

structure

Germany becamepreeminent in new fields

such as chemicals and

electricity


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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

The Spread of

IndustrializationItaly, 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

AgricultureThe percentage of the

population that made its livingin agriculture continued to

decline

In France, Netherlands, andSwedenagriculture continued

to play a larger role

Specialization emerged, e.g.Denmark: a highly capitalizedand profitable dairy industry

Importing grains becamecommon internationally. Themost common response was

protective tariffs


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The Long Depression

The second industrial

revolution occurred in

one of the longest and

most severe periods

of deflation in

European history.

From the 1870s to

1896, prices, interest

rates, and profits 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 reflected the

benefits of

industrial

prosperity

declining birthrates

the result of

widening use of

contraception

bourgeois valueslater marriage,

fewer births,

smaller families


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Understandings of Nature and

Society

Scientific discoveries underlay

technological innovation far more

directly than in the first industrial

revolution

Research demanded more

systematic organization and larger

and more expensive laboratories

The educated public could

understand many of the newscientific theories, and scientific

ideas were an important part of

the general discourse about

religion, progress, and ethics

The Conquests of Science

Biology: The Darwinian

Revolution

A disturbing theory of human

developmentCharles

Darwins On the Origin of Species

Alfred R. Wallaceindependently developed a

similar theory

The variety of species is

potentially infiniterejecting

the classical and Christian ideas

of immutable forms; only thosewell adapted to their

environment survived to

reproduce


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Medicine The identification of germs andgerm 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 tablewas 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 fields 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 wouldencompass 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 insociology


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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; thesynthesis becomes the new

thesis

Karl Marx

Trained in German

philosophy; marx

outlined his theory ofhistory 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 conflict is the mechanism

of historical progress, and the

triumph of the proletariat willbring a new synthesis, a

classless societyin the new era

the state wold wither away


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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


10/13

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 aculture 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

Early silent motion film 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

Charlie Chaplin


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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, sacrifice

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


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Artistic Modernism

A trend toward national

styles emerged; folk

elements and distinct

traditions leading to

recognizable national

identity

Artists became social

critics, primarily issuesof politics and values

that troubled society

Divergent Schools

Naturalists claimed that

the artist, like a scientist,

should present life inobjective 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


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Realistic paintersof midcentury had

turned to scenesfrom ordinary life.

Like Englandspre-Raphaelites,who took theirname from the

pious and simplerart of the earlyRenaissance

Toward a More

Subjective Art

*Impressionists broke

with this tradition toconcentrate on

capturing the effects of

light and color

Claude Monet

Vincent van Gogh

24 progress and its discontents

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