English 1057 England to 1968

English Civilization in Three Steps Feudal economy (500-1500) Land is valuable. Population is rural. Society is organized around kings, lords/knights, and peasants, by ties of loyalty Capitalist/Industrial economy (1500-1968) Production and goods are valuable. Population is urban. Society is organized around owners and workers, by ties of economic benefit Knowledge economy (1968-) Information is valuable. Population is online. Society is organized around multiple and temporary arrangements of sharing and controlling information

The first wave: Agriculture The middle ages cannot be understood without understanding feudalism. Feudalism is an economic and cultural system in which the king holds land, which is assigned to aristocrats, church officials, and other lords. These lords fight as knights in the king’s army and, in turn, rent their land to peasants, who work the land and provide taxes and services to their lord. Medieval literature and culture presents this relationship as one of love and duty, with the ideal warrior fighting to the death for his lord.

The second wave: Industrialism The economic development of industrial production through capitalism, as opposed to land production. The growth of trade and colonization. Improved sea technology and navigation equipment allowed a huge expansion in markets and colonies as European countries raced to claim lands in North and South America and Africa and Asia. The expansion of industrialized war. Medieval war was actually infrequent and small because war was expensive. New technologies drove the mechanization of modern permanent armies and new, deadly weaponry such as cannons, rifles, warships, and machine guns.

The second wave: Industrialization The growth of nationalism, as opposed to religious or folk traditions of identity. The growth of countries based on language or political divisions instead of on ethnic markings solidified borders. Nationalism often supported the growth of democracy and voting rights. The growth of humanism and science. Originally early modern intellectuals were not hostile to Christianity. But over time the older concept of truth as being revealed or reasoned was in competition with the idea of empirical truth, information derived from observation or experimentation— the growth of modern science.

Victorian England 1837-1901 Beloved Queen Victoria reigned over the height of the British Empire in the nineteenth century, when its huge wealth, trade, and industrial power ruled the world. Along with Elizabethan England, it was a sort of second golden age of English wealth, culture, arts, and literature.

Storm Clouds The decline of belief in man as rational. Freud’s studies begin to suggest that people’s mental states are unreliable and subject to neuroses. Bergson writes on the perception of time as unstable and subjective. John Watson studies behaviorism, suggesting that people can be conditioned into different behaviors. Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle (1928) argues that matter itself is unpredictable. The decline in belief of man as divinely special. Darwin wasn’t an atheist until late in life, and he believed that evolutionary theory wasn’t necessarily in conflict with Christianity—many European churches believed that the Genesis story of creation wasn’t meant literally anyway. But as evolutionary theory and the scientific process became more hostile to traditional concepts of man as created by God and having a special identity, the picture of man as having a higher moral spirit is challenged.

War Becomes Deadly The First World War is basically a European civil war caused by the buildup of professional armies and antagonistic alliances in Europe caused by nationalism. The war began as a popular romantic movement until its unprecedented level of destruction became felt. In 1918 much of Europe was in ruins and a young generation of men was depopulated. Europe suffered some 40 million deaths.

The Modernist Death of Civilization Intellectual and cultural: Poets, thinkers, and leaders were shocked by the war and questioned Victorian and enlightenment ideas of progress. Some saw an end to the values of western civilization. What became known as the “Lost Generation” of poets and artists became centered in Paris where they responded to the destruction of the old Europe—these movements became tied to modernism, with sub-movements such as Dadaism (based on nonsense) and later existentialism and nihilism. T.S. Eliot, in The Waste Land, calls civilization “a heap of broken images.”

Consequences of war The decline of belief in unending progress: Science in the Victorian era had seen itself as a means to a better world, freed from the old burdens of religion and superstition. Although the war did not necessarily cause a mass return to Christian faith, it destroyed much of the Victorian respect for scientists, who were now seen as “agents of death” for creating dangerous inventions. The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 symbolized the failure of scientific arrogance.

Consequences of war The early rise of globalization. Technological innovations in communications, such as telegraphs, telephones, movies, radio, and then early television broadcasts, allowed faster communication. The growth of cars and railroads and advanced shipbuilding allowed trade and travel to become easier. The love affair with “the great god CAR” led to the growth of early suburbs and highway systems.

The Roaring ‘20s in England Postwar prosperity and decadence Voting rights for women Changing social roles

Great Depression, England 1930-39

Storm Clouds Fascism. Post-war Europe decided to punish Germany heavily for its instigation of the war. This pushed Germany into such ruin that in its chaos Hitler and National Socialism gained credibility. Inspired by German Romanticism and nationalism, a pseudo-science form of Darwinism applied to race, and economic socialism, Hitler was an anti-Christian and anti-Jewish dictator who used the new tools of propaganda and technology to build a terror state.

Storm Clouds Communism. In Russia communist rebels established a totalitarian state, The Soviet Union, also managed by the repressive use of industrial technologies. Lenin and then Stalin crushed dissent such as churches and intellectual elites, building prison camps. As western democracies fell into economic depression in the 1930s, many saw the world in a failing state.

World War II (1939-45) Deadliest conflict in human history About 85 million deaths Involves 30 countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia “Allies”: England, USSR, USA, China “Axis”: Germany, Japan, Italy Technological innovations of radar, computing; but also atomic bomb

World War II (1939-45) Because of mass conscripted and volunteer armies, and because of civilian attacks and the economic burden of industrial war, everyone is affected. To this day there are economic, political, and demographic consequences of World War II.

England at 1945: Cynicism and Change WWII is not as heavy a blow to Europe as WWI, but English cities are badly damaged. As soldiers return, social and economic problems mount, and rationing continues. Winston Churchill, after leading the country during the war, is defeated in election. The ideologies of the war (Fascism; Communism; Holocaust; propaganda) and the bomb remain difficult legacies and issues.

Postwar England

England at 1945: Rebuilding Although the war is won in April 1945, England sustained heavy damage and loss of life from German bombings. J.K. Rowling lost her mother and disliked her father, but it’s not surprising that being orphaned is a literary theme in postwar British literature.

English culture, 1945 Technologically and culturally, by 1945 England is “modern.” The country has cars, television, movies, and early computers. The beginnings of a modern culture of consumer consumption, fashion, and music are forming.

The third wave: A knowledge economy Computerization and technology raise living standards and enable new forms of media, such as satellite-linked TV Globalization allows goods and ideas to quickly spread Leisure and mass production allow a rapidly-moving popular culture of fashion, music, food, and other styles The growth of youth culture and alternative sub-cultures

Teddy Boys – Anti-austerity

The Rise of Popular Culture in England (1950s)

England’s Swinging ‘60s A recovery from austerity leads to economic confidence and a loosening of social rules and traditions. Fashions are more daring; rock music becomes popular; “the pill” is available.

English culture, 1960’s Despite its actual political empire shrinking because of decolonization, England becomes a fashion, music, and cultural trendsetter.