Changing Attitudes and Values

• The Industrial Revolution slowly changed the old social order in the western world.

• Previously, the two main classes were nobles and peasants.

• After the revolution, there was an upper class, a new upper and lower middle class, and the working class. Class structure was primarily based on economic status rather than heredity.

Middle Class Values

• The middle class developed its own way of life. Most families lived in large homes or modern apartment houses. Homes were furnished with large, overstuffed furniture. Clothing followed strict guidelines for respectability. Etiquette was especially important, and children were to be “seen and not heard.”

Women’s Rights• Some individual women and women’s groups

protested restrictions on women.• Women campaigned for fairness in marriage,

divorce, and property laws. They supported the temperance movement, a campaign to limit or ban the use of alcoholic beverages.

• Women also struggled for the right to gain a college education and to train as doctors and lawyers.

• The woman’s suffrage movement, or the struggle for the right to vote emerged in the 1800s.

Growth of Public Education

• By the late 1800s reformers had persuaded many governments to set up public schools and require basic education for all children.

• Topics taught including reading and writing, arithmetic, punctuality, obedience to authority, good work habits, and patriotism. In European schools, religion was also taught.

• At first, elementary schools were quite primitive, and students were only in school when they were not needed at home.

• By the late 1800s, more and more children were in school, and the quality of elementary education improved.

• In secondary schools, students learned Latin and Greek, along with history and mathematics.

• Usually, only middle-families could afford to send their sons to secondary schools, in the hopes that they would be able to obtain further education or enter government jobs.

• Colleges and universities were also expanding. Most university students were the sons of upper- and middle-class families.

• By the 1840s a few small women’s colleges had opened.

New Directions in Science

• Researchers began developing new theories about the natural world in the late 1800s.

• One breakthrough development came when John Dalton developed the modern atomic theory. He showed how different kinds combine to make all chemical substances.

• In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleyev grouped the atoms by weight into a table which became the basis for the periodic table we use today.

• One of the most disturbing new theories came from Charles Darwin, who published On the Origin of Species in 1859. Darwin said that all forms of life had evolved over millions of years. To explain evolution, he developed the theory of natural selection.

• Darwin applied Thomas Malthus’ idea that population growth could exceed the food supply to plants and animals. Darwin said that as a result, members of the same species had to compete for survival, and that only those with physical traits adapted to the environment they lived in would survive. This process was called “survival of the fittest.”

• Darwin applied this theory to humans, stating that “Man is descended from some less highly organized form.” He said that humans were still evolving.

• Darwin’s theories sparked a debate between Christians and scientists that continues today.

• Darwin himself did not promote any social ideas, but some thinkers used his theories to support their own beliefs. When Darwinism is applied to social issues, it is known as Social Darwinism. It is the idea that industrial tycoons who built big businesses were more “fit” than those they put out of business.

• Social Darwinism encouraged racism, or the belief that one racial group is superior to another. These ideas were used to justify imperialism (when one country exerts power over another), racial discrimination, and segregation.

A New Culture• Changes in the structure of society led to cultural

changes as well.• From 1750 – 1850 a cultural movement called

romanticism shaped literature and arts. Romantics rebelled against the Enlightenment ideals of reason and progress. They glorified nature and sought to excite strong emotions in their audiences.

• Romantic writers included Charlotte and Emily Bronte (Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights), Sir Walter Scott, and Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers.)

• Romanic composers tried to stir deep emotions. Ludwig van Beethoven combined classical forms of music with a wide range of sound. He was the first composer to use all the instruments in the modern orchestra. Many consider him to be the greatest composer of his day.

• Frederic Chopin was a second great Romantic composer.

• Romantic painters attempted to capture the beauty and power of nature. J.M.W. Turner often painted scenes of tiny human figures struggling against the elements.

• Romantic painters illustrated everything from peasant life to medieval knights to current events.

Fishermen at Sea

Fall of the Rhine at Schaffhausen

Rosenau

The Call to Realism• In the mid-1800s, Romanticism was replaced by

Realism. Realism was an attempt to represent the world as it was. Realists focused on the harsh side of life in cities or villages and often were committed to improving the lives of those they depicted.

• Charles Dickens was a realist who attempted to portray the lives of slum dwellers and factory workers, including children. One of his most famous works is Oliver Twist, the story of a nine-yr-old orphan who is being raised in a poor house.

• Victor Hugo was a realist who wrote Les Miserables, the story of how hunger drove a good man to crime.

• In art, realist painters attempted to represent the realities of their time. Gustave Courbet was a French realist who said, “I cannot paint an angel, because I have never seen one.”

• Thomas Eakins shocked viewers with his realistic painting of a medical class conducting a dissection.

Courbet – The Stonebreakers

Courbet – Self-portrait

Courbet – The Calm SeaEakins – The Gross Clinic

A New Direction in the Visual Arts

• By the 1840s, the art of photography was emerging. Early pictures were called daguerreotypes after Louis Daguerre, a French photographer.

• Eventually, photography came to be used to represent the grim realities of life. Matthew Brady recorded the American Civil War in photographs, while other photographers documented the harsh conditions in factories and slums.

• Photography posed a challenge to artists, who said why try for realism when a camera can do the same thing, only better?

• In the 1870s, a new movement, impressionism, began in Paris. Artists like Claude Monet and Edgar Degas did not blend their brush strokes. They believed the human eye would mix the patches of color.

• Impressionists focused on visual impressions rather than realism.

• The postimpressionists developed a variety of styles. Georges Seurat used small dots of color to define the shapes of objects, while Vincent van Gogh used sharp brush lines and bright colors.

Van Gogh

Starry Night

Shoes

Georges Seurat