Industrialization, cities, and classes

Consequences of Urbanization

·       Great overcrowding and poor sanitation

·       Housing construction lagged well behind population growth

·       Governments passed some legislation to rid cities of slums

Charles Dickens, 1812-1870

The Pickwick Papers, 1837

Oliver Twist, 1838

David Copperfield, 1850

Bleak House, 1853

Hard Times, 1854

A Tale of Two Cities, 1859

Great Expectations, 1861

 

The making of classes

·       What is social class?

o      Pay

o      Type of work

o      Relation to the means of production

o      Where one lives

o      Servants

Where did class come from?

·       City

·       Comparisons

·       Lack of clear distinctions

·       Trickled down

Who were the Middle Classes?

  1. Bourgeoisie
  2. Not homogenous
  3. Educated
  4. Fluid (sort of)
  5. At least, the belief in upward mobility
  6. Samuel Smiles, Self-Help, 1859
    • Spirit of Capitalism
  7. Respectability
    • A code of behavior
    • Financial independence
    • Providing for family
    • Avoiding gambling and debt
    • Hard work
    • Modesty
    • Sobriety

The Middle Classes and Gender

  • The marriage: mergers and “love”
  • The family
  • The home: a well-governed household
  • Separate spheres:
    • Private (women)
      1. Angel in the house: servants and governesses
      2. Cult of domesticity
    • Public (men)
      1. Responsibility
      2. Unemotional
  • Queen Victoria (r. 1837–1901)
    • Reflected contemporary feminine virtues of moral probity and dutiful domesticity
    • Successful queen because she embodied middle-class virtues

The Middle Classes and sexuality

  • Victorian sexuality: anxiety, prudishness, and ignorance
  • Scientists taught that specific characteristics were inherent to each sex: “woman’s nature”
  • Women were “passionless,’ so morally  superior
  • Absence of reliable contraceptives

The Working-Classes

  • Various classes here as well
    • Skill
    • Wages
    • Gender
    • Workplace
  • Movement from skilled to unskilled due to technological change
  • Housing was unhealthy and unregulated

Working-Class Life

  • Working-class women in the industrial landscape
  • Promiscuous mixing in workshops
  • Children left unattended
  • Industrial accidents
  • Women’s work not new—industrialization made it more visible

 

Rise of Socialism

Who were these guys?

What was socialism?

The ideology that one should help those hurt by the negative consequences of industrialization

Henri de Saint-Simon

·       First socialist

·       Early feminist

·       Economy determines politics

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

·       1848: Communist Manifesto

·       All history is about class struggle

·       Made the proletariat (workers) the vanguard of revolution - THE FUTURE