1. The Age of Progress, Optimism, and Skepticism
Victorian Life
The Age of Progress, Optimism, and Skepticism

2. Trends Life marked by extreme optimism and extreme uncertainty
Great faith in science due to its role in industrialism and in medical advances
New inventions had transformed life for the better
Victorian Era = the age of Progress and Optimism; “The flowering of the Enlightenment”

3. Challenges Victorians were challenged by new ideas
Evolution—Darwin and Wallace
Social Darwinism—Spencer
Genetics—Mendel
Psychology—Freud and Pavlov
Chemistry and Physics—Curies et. al.

4. Religion Traditional religious beliefs were challenged
Many found this quite unsettling
Challenges included agnosticism, Darwinism, and skepticism

5. Agnosticism Spencer and Haeckel
“anything unproveable by science must remain unknowable forever.”
Applied this theory to the existence of God and decided that one couldn’t prove or disprove his reality.

6. Darwinism
Challenged traditional religious beliefs about the origins of life and man’s place in the world.
“Origin of the Species”
“The Descent of Man”

7. Skepticism Biblical validity questioned
Tried to find scientific proof of Old and New Testament events
Couldn’t scientifically explain miracles
Decided that miracles didn’t really happen and that the Bible was wrong.
Friedrich Strauss—1864 “The Life of Jesus”

8. Churches Fought Back
Protestant churches encouraged fundamentalism and revival and denounced people like Darwin
Catholic popes wrote essays defending church beliefs
Pope Pius IX: “Syllabus of Errors” 1864: science can be in error and faith is needed to explain the Bible.

9. Churches, cont. Pope Leo XIII: 1891—”Rarum Novarum”
Denounced Social Darwinism, Marxism and materialism and upheld right to private property
Criticized capitalism for a willingness to allow poverty, insecurity and suffering of the working class
***Called for social relief***

10. Demographic Trends Population growth in Europe
1850 = 266 million
1900 = 447 million
Population growth rate falling by 1900 due to:
Birth control—economic security did not require a big family; kids were expensive; middle class and lower middle class bought consumer goods instead of spending $$$ on kids
Emigration
Death rate fell due to better medical care and living conditions

11. More Trends
Urbanization continued—by 1900, 50% of Europeans lived in cities
Emigration stabilized the population
50 million people left Europe between 1850 and 1932
Most went to the USA

12. Characteristics of the 2nd Industrial Revolution
Centered in the chemical, medical, and consumer fields
Centered on oil and on electrical power and new inventions
Railroads grew
Cheaper shipping of goods  more exports, esp. of consumer items

13. More Characteristics
Tariff reductions: many nations cooperated to reduce tariffs
This helped all of them
Creation of Stock Markets
England—1856
France—1863
Prussia—1870

14. More Trends Consolidation of German currency—1872
Growth of large banks/growth of credit
Department stores and mail order businesses emerged in Paris and London.

15. New Industrial Products
Steel (Bessemer process)
Chemicals
Oil
Electricity
Consumer Goods
Many useful inventions that made life easier for the average middle-class citizen (radio, toaster, electric stove)

16. Electricity 1881: 1st electric power plant built in England
By 1890: Widespread use of electric lights in England
1900: Large cities all over Europe began to install electric street lamps, including Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg.

17. Great Exhibition of 1851
A world’s fair held to show off the wonders of England’s industrial accomplishments
Symbolized by its main structure, the Crystal Palace.

18. Double Standards
Men went to college, voted, were professionals, and had the freedom to do anything they wanted in society.
Women went to etiquette school, did not vote, were secretaries, factory workers, nurses, and teachers (couldn’t marry).
High expectations existed for women’s behavior (prostitution shunned, etc.)

19. Double Standards
Although there was much drinking and prostitution in society, there was a distinction between the upper and working classes
Gin was evil because it was consumed by the working class, but beer was ok because it was an upper class drink.
Tablecloths and piano skirts were used to cover the legs of the furniture……

20. Reading Public
By 1875, most W. European nations offered free elementary education.
Created a market for books, magazines, papers, etc.
Illustrated London News 1842; Punch 1851; Daily Mail 1854
Intellectual Writing reflected on societal problems
Brownings, M. Arnold, Dickens, Tennyson, etc.