Chapter 23 The Age of Optimism, 1850–1880

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Industrial Growth and Acceleration After 1850, the “Second Industrial Revolution” – New sources of energy: petroleum and electricity – New products: chemicals, steel, aluminum – New types of consumption: department stores and mail-order – Expansion of credit and world trade – Science became a partner in industrial development Transportation and communications – Dramatic expansion of the railway – The Suez Canal (1869) and steamships – Refrigeration – Development of standardized postal systems – Expanding telegraph networks; invention of the telephone in 1879

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A Transforming Elite The declining importance of aristocracy – Landed wealth became less important with the rise of industry – Lines between aristocracy and upper middle class began to blur – Aristocracy nevertheless retained some prestige The rising middle class, or bourgeoisie – Industrial expansion benefitted entrepreneurs and managers – Growing complexity of society benefitted professionals A steadily growing number of occupations became “professionalized” Emphasis on education and qualifications rather than old-style patronage Lawyers, medical doctors, architects, engineers, scientists, teachers – A distinctively “Victorian” set of values Emphasis on self-control in public The “separation of the spheres” – Unlike the aristocracy, a class people lower down the social scale could aspire to join

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Workers and the Poor Confronting the problems of industrial development – Rising standards of living in general, but persistent poverty as well – Poverty generated anxieties among the elite Fears of worker agitation and popular violence Concerns about declining birthrates undermining national power – Government responses to poverty – Private and religious responses The key role of bourgeois women in charity work Pope Leo XIII and the idea of “social Catholicism” Changes in rural life – Changes in farming practices raise yields and reduce labor needs – Rural population shrank as urban population grew – Rural areas became more tightly knit into national markets – In Eastern Europe, the pace of change was much slower

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Urban Problems and Solutions Cities grew steadily in this period – Haussmann and the transformation of Paris – Making cities into effective sites of large scale production and consumption New public services – Developments to improve public health and safety The introduction of running water Gaslights and policing – Trams and underground railways

PARIS

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Education and the Growing Prestige of Science The rise of public education – After 1870, European nations increasingly offered free primary education – Secondary education expanded as well Generally limited to middle and upper classes Played an important role in making professionalization possible Rise of universities and the professionalization of science Positivism: the idea that scientific inquiry drives human progress Key scientific breakthroughs – Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution – Mendeleev’s periodic table – Advances in medicine: Pasteur and Lister

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The Impact of Science’s Prestige Creating “social sciences” – Leopold von Ranke and historical inquiry – Anthropology and the “science” of European superiority – Sociology, the science of society Religion challenged – The Catholic Church and its reactionary position after 1848 – Growing political challenges to Church authority The anti-Catholic position of the post-unification Italian Government Bismarck’s Kulturkampf The secularism of the French Third Republic – Growing intellectual challenges from science and the “positivist” world- view

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Culture in an Age of Change Modernism in the arts: embracing the new Painting and the challenge of photography – The Realists – The Impressionists Literature and the prestige of science – Realism and naturalism adapt the scientific ideal of dispassionate observation Gustave Flaubert and Emile Zola Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Some writers rejected the positivist world-view and its optimistic faith in progress Thomas Carlyle

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