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The Industrial Revolution Part #3 Impacts on Society. Impacts on Society. 'Winners- Bourgeois/ Middle Class' 'Losers?- Proletariat/Working Class'. 19 c Bourgeoisie: The Industrial Nouveau Riche. Stereotype of the Factory Owner. Bourgeoisie Had capital could be entrepreneurs
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'Winners- Bourgeois/ Middle Class' 'Losers?- Proletariat/Working Class'
Bourgeoisie Had capital could be entrepreneurs Some blamed them for the plight of the poor, while others felt that they had no choice as the result of stiff competition Laissez Faire Capitalism Any interference in the market will harm its efficiency Child labor? Subsistence wages? ‘Buying orphans?’ ‘Sixteen hour work days?’
The "Have-Nots": The Poor, The Over-Worked, & the Destitute
The Poor- negative? ‘the mob’ turned into ‘the working class’ Most contemporaries felt that the Industrial Revolution was bad for the working class (aka proletariat)
Conditions of Work in factories www.scienceandsociety.co.factories/.../ 104019798_T.JPG
Child Labor in the Mines Child “hurriers”
The Poor- Positives? • Most modern historians believe that in the long run the Industrial Revolution was a good thing for the working class • Cheaper goods… • Statistics show slow gains for working class before 1820 and then faster gains • (question is raised, does increased purchasing power lead to happiness)? • Better transportation • Gov’ts increasingly step in to help out the market ‘losers’ • Factory Act of 1833 • Mines Acts • Unions
Part IV. Reactions to the I.R. “The Great Land Serpent”
William Blake Jerusalem AND did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England's mountains green? And was the holy Lamb of God On England's pleasant pastures seen? And did the Countenance Divine Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here Among these dark Satanic mills? Bring me my bow of burning gold: Bring me my arrows of desire: Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold! Bring me my chariot of fire. I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand Till we have built Jerusalem In England's green and pleasant land.
The Luddites: 1811-1816 Attacks on the “frames” [power looms]. Ned Ludd [a mythical figure supposed to live in Sherwood Forest]
Artistic Reactions • Romanticism • Reaction against the cold rational logic of the enlightenment and industrialization • Longed for an idealized pre-rational time of nature, emotion, and spontaneity • Anyone remember the major philosophe seen as the father of the Romantic movement? • Late 18th and most of the 19th centuries
John Constable • Romanticism
John Constable • Romanticism
Realism • opposite of Romanticism • An attempt to capture the world as it is: grit and all • Same time period as Romanticism
Landscape with Two Peasant Women , Between 1870 and 1875 --- Realism Millet, Jean-Francois
RealismPeasant-Girls with Brushwood , Circa 1852 Millet, Jean-Francois
Social Scientists and The I.R. • Malthus and Ricardo Does this graph demonstrate Malthus’ or Ricardo’s ideas?
Malthus’ Theories • Malthus- Food can only grow at an arithmetic rate (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), while population grows geometrically (2, 4, 8, 16, 32) • The mob or working class will never gain, because population growth will outpace technological ability to feed them • Only two options… dire poverty or wars/plague/death events
Ricardo’s Ideas • The Iron Law of Wages • Wages must stay at subsistence level • If they go up, the poor have more offspring, which reduces wages to the point where poor start to die off… eventually reaches an equilibrium at subsistence • Basically reaches the same conclusion as Malthus- poverty is assured
Utopian Socialism • Society/gov can step in to ensure that the rising tide of Industrial efficiency can lift all ships • Drew inspiration from the Radical Phase of the French Revolution • Robert Owen’s Utopian Factory Towns • Better living conditions, higher pay, even higher profit? • Ultimately failed • Push for Unions • Originally fought by elites (in, say, Parliament) • Combination Acts of 1799 • Eventually, workers in many Western European nations won rights • Saddler Commission • Factory Act of 1833 • Mines Acts • Utopian Socialists didn’t have a lot of success in affecting change. Historians have criticized them as impractical.
Chartists • One reason that workers won rights in Western Europe was the increasingly widening franchise throughout the 19th century • If workers can vote, politicians must court them • Chartists were a British organization that sought workers right through an expanded franchise • The rise of this ‘mass politics’: in other words, coming closer to true democracy’ will be hugely important in the 2nd half of the 19th century
Engels • German academic whose father owned factories in England • Engels visited the factories as a young man and was appalled by the conditions there • 1844 The Condition of the Working Class in England • He condemned the bourgeoisie as class criminals for their exploitation • We are getting to the idea of class consciousness • His work caught the attention of socialists • Especially those who wanted a more scientific socialism (later to be known as Communism) • Engels work in particular got the attention of a German political philosopher named _____________ • Interestingly, Engels may have gotten a skewed view of industrialization. Why? • England went first and made mistakes that other nations didn’t repeat