Admir Milla AP Euro

Solomon 3/2/11

Unit 12: Day 2

I.

The Emergence of Mass Society A. improved urban environment, new patterns of social structure, gender issues, mass education, and mass leisure; other features of the 2nd Rev. B. Population Growth 1. b/w 1850-1880, large birthrate; after 1880, decrease death rate; 2 main factors medical discoveries and environmental conditionsstand out.; vaccinations for small pox 2. clean seweage and water supply; tradition became healthier; Better nutrition and food hygiene; food transported in a safer way C. Emigration 1. Indefinite time for agriculture- especially in areas that had little industrialization and severe overpopulation; most ppl moved to cities; 2. agricultural regions like southern Italy, Spain, Hungary, and Romania; land could not support pop. 3. NA offered place of mass emigration; oppressed minorities also came to NA (Poles, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Romanians, and Jews.) D. Transformation of the Urban Environment 1. Pop explosion-> urbanization; city pop increase due to Euro migration; 2. Urban pop grew fastest b/c rural migration as well; forced to-no food/work; improved living conditions increased pop as well 3. Improving Living Condition a. Legislature passed laws for public health; medical officers and inspectors began inspecting buildings; new building regulations; Public Health Act of 1875prevented new buildings from being built w/o running water and internal drainage; 1st time govt took part in regulation for living standards b. 2 major feats- bring fresh water and sewage system; fresh water problem solved by dams, resevoirs, and aqueducts-> bring in to individual homes c. Sewage pipes built underground- took waste to what would become highly polluted lakes/rivers 4. Housing Needs a. Middle-class reformers who denounced the unsanitary living conditions of the working classes also focused on their housing needs.

b. Overcrowded, disease-ridden slums were viewed as dangerous not only to physical health but also to the political and moral health of the entire nation. B.V.A. Huber, the foremost early German housing reformer, thought that good housing was a prerequisite for a stable family life and hence a stable society. II. Early efforts to attack the housing problem emphasized the middle-class, liberal belief in the efficacy of private enterprise. c. Reformers such as Huber believed that the construction of model dwellings renting at a reasonable price would force other private landlords to elevate their housing standards. d. An example of this approach was Octavia Hill, who rehabilitated some old dwellings and constructed new ones to house 3,500 tenants. e. Other wealthy reformer-philanthropists took a different approach to the housing problem. f. One approach was the garden city. g. At the end of the 19thc, Ebenezer Howard founded the British garden city movement, which advocated the construction of new towns separated from each other by open country that would provide the recreational areas, fresh air, and sense of community that would encourage a healthy life. IV. As the number and size of cities continued to grow, governments by the 1880s came to the conclusion that private enterprise could not solve the housing crisis. h. In 1890, a British law empowered local town councils to collect new taxes and construct cheap housing for the working classes. i. Everywhere, however, the lukewarm measures failed to do much to meet the real housing needs of the working classes. In Britain, for example, only 5% of all dwellings erected b/w 1890-1914 were constructed by municipalities under the Housing Act of 1890. j. In housing, as in many other areas of life in the 19thc, the liberal principle that the government that governs least governs best had simply proved untrue. More and more, governments were stepping into areas of activity that they would not have touched earlier. 5. Redesigning the Cities Housing was but one area of urban reconstruction after 1870. a. As urban populations expanded in the 19thc, the older layout, confining the city to a compact area enclosed by defensive walls, seemed restrictive and useless. b. In the 2nd of the 19thc, many of the old defensive walls were pulled down, and the areas were converted into parks and boulevards. c. While the broad streets served a military purposethe rapid deployment of troops to crush civil disturbancesthey also offered powerful symbols of middle-class social values. II. Like Vienna, many European urban centers were redesigned during the 2nd of the 19thc. d. The old residential districts in the central city, many of them working-class slums,

e. were demolished and replaced w/town halls, government office buildings, retail stores, museums, cafs, and theaters, all of which provided for the shopping and recreational pleasures of the middle class. f. reconstruction, city populations spilled over into the neighboring villages and countrysides, which were soon incorporated into the cities. g. The construction of the streetcar and commuter train lines by the turn of the century enabled both working-class and middle-class populations to live in their own suburban neighborhoods far removed from their places of work. h. Cheap, modern transportation essentially separated home and work for many Europeans. 6. Social Structure of the Mass Society a. Historians generally agree that after 1871, the average person enjoyed an improving standard of living. Great poverty did remain in Western society, and the gap b/w rich and poor was enormous. b. There were many different groups of varying wealth b/w the small group of the elite at the top and the large number of poor at the very bottom. 7. The Upper Classes I. At the top of European society stood a wealthy elite, constituting 5% of the population but controlling 30-40% of its wealth. a. In the course of the 19thc, aristocrats coalesced w/the most successful industrialists, bankers, and merchants to form a new elite. b. Big business had produced this group of wealthy plutocrats, while aristocrats, whose income from landed estates had declined, invested in railway shares, public utilities, government bonds, and businesses, sometimes on their own estates. c. Gradually, the greatest fortunes shifted into the hands of the upper middle class Increasingly, aristocrats and plutocrats fused as the wealthy upper middle-class purchased landed estates to join the aristocrats in country living and the aristocrats bought town houses for part-time urban life. d. The educated elite assumed leadership roles in government bureaucracies E. The Question on Women 1. Question over role of women in society; males were the wage earners; lower class women worked b/c low income 2. Marriage and Domesticity a. Increase in marriage and deciline in illegitimatacy rate; women found it economically better to marry-low wages; could not enter convents anymore; 3. Birthrates and Birthcontrol a. Invention of contraceptives did not come into full use until after WWI; coitus interruptus; women abandoned their babies/abortion/infanticide 4. The Middle-Class Family a. Men-income; cheap labor reduced role of women in household(servents); less children gave women more time for child care and domestic leisure; time

period encouraged family(July 4th, picnics); women prepared for domestic recreation b. Children viewed as own age(Roussou); mass production of toys and dolls; boys sent to school till age of 17-18; sports to toughen up; Boy Scouts in ENG(1908) 5. The Working Class Family a. Family could live of father income; work became more manageable- no work on Saturdays; children seen as dependent, not wage earners