19 th Century Urban Life

1. 19th Century Urban Life

2. City Life Crowded, narrow housing Open sewers in streets Walking distances for most people

3. Why so bad? Government philosophy of nonintervention Lack of public transit History of poor housing and un-cleanliness

4. Utilitarianism Government should seek the “Greatest good for the greatest number” Developed by Jeremy Bentham

5. Reform in Britain • Edwin Chadwick chief reformer • Sanitation will improve poverty levels • Published research findings • Sewers drained with water • Gains support after cholera outbreak • Significant improvement by the 1870s • Mortality rates begin to fall

6. Medical Knowledge • Germ Theory (Louis Pasteur) • Living organisms, (bacteria) spread disease • Killed by heat (Pasteurization) • Vaccines developed • Antiseptic (Joseph Lister) • Sterilizes operating rooms  higher survival rate • Mortality rate drops • Rural and Urban life expectancy similar by 1910

7. Urban Planning • Ex: Paris (Georges Hausmann) • Wide, straight roads • Slums torn down • Parks and open space • Sewers, clean water

8. Public Transit Horse pulled cars, later electric cars allow cities to expand

10. Social Structure Aristocracy Middle Class (Upper, Middle, Lower) Working Class (High, Semi, Unskilled)

11. “Middle Class” • Tended to not work with hands (White-collar professions) • Upper Middle mixes with Aristocracy • Intermarry, emulate style and elegance • Middle: Lawyers, doctors, engineers, gov. officials • Lower: Shop keepers, traders, teachers • Comfortable, not rich

12. Middle Class Culture • Dinner parties, books, travel, clothes • Wives managed the home • Enabled by wealth • “Servant keeping classes” • Strong sense of morality

13. “Working Class” • 80% of population • Marked by physical labor • Skilled: Foreman, jewelers, printers • Ever shrinking • Desire economic improvement, emulate middle class • Semi-skilled: Craftsmen, decent wages • Unskilled: day labor, domestic servants • Drinking most popular recreation • “Problem” Drinking seen as socially unacceptable • Sports, music halls, theatres

14. Religious Revival and Decline Religious fervor grows in first half of 19th c. Diminishes in working class in second half

15. Marriage • Romantic love becomes basis for marriage • Mostly in working class • Upper Middle and Aristocracy marry for advantage • Rise in illegitimacy to ~1850, decline after • Strict gender roles • Women expected to stay home if able, • Few legal rights • More loving child rearing, fewer children

16. Science • Increased standard of living enables scientific research • Major advances made in thermodynamics, chemistry, electricity • Translate into practical advances

17. Social Science • Study human behavior and interaction by scientific principles & research • Sociology • Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) • Natural selection-the “how” of evolution • Questions traditional understandings • Increasing secularism • Social Darwinism • Applies Darwin’s logic to society • Studies the “survival of the fittest” in society

18. Realism • Writers offer life as it was • Express and explore the typical and normal • Ex: Emile Zola, Balzac, Tolstoy