Industrial Revolution

Industrialization

1. What was the Industrial Revolution? Why may it be said that it was not a revolution at all?

The industrial revolution was a period of time in which many countries decided to abandon the agriculturalist way of life and decided to do what the name of the period suggests, industrialize. New technology was introduced and machines came about that characterized the industrial revolution. However, in spite of what its name suggest it can be argued that the industrial revolution wasn’t a true revolution but rather an enlarging of both the business and the wage-earning classes, The main difference in the before and after periods of the industrial revolution was that power machinery replaced the common carpenters tool belt so to speak. What also keeps one from calling this a revolution was the fact that in the 1830’s, despite all of the “revolution-izing” that took place, only a small fraction of the working class in Britain were employed in the factories that came about during that time. The factories of the time weren’t so much a revolution so much as a growth and expansion of business as usual. They were viewed as a new and advanced form of production.

2. What important population and urban change accompanied the Industrial Revolution? Why was it difficult to deal with the problems of rapid urbanization?

In no place is industrialization seen better than at its root, Britain. It is here that the population changes can be noted as the most obvious as well as the urban changes that clearly show a boom. In the span of one hundred years the population had tripled. Where as the majority of England’s population lived in the south, its resources were located in the north. Its resources, namely coal and iron were in such high demand that many moved to where they could mine these materials. Prior to the boom of the English population there were only three cities with more than 50,000 people outside of England and Scotland. But a short seventy years later there were more than ten times that amount of cites populated, saturated with people. This rapid urbanization, this unprecedented growth in cities was taking place in an unheard of amount of time.

However, as much as all of this industrialization was paving the way for things to come, it was a doing a tremendous job of creating problems for the English people. As factories grew so did pollution. Soot and tar fell upon the cities making them all but uninhabitable. They were dark, grey and unsanitary. Entire families had to live in single rooms to deal with overcrowding and to make way for more houses being built. The majority of workers were harmed in the work place and there was much competition among the other workers that led them to underhand tactics. The cramp quarters spread diseases and the routine that they fell into was mind numbing.

3. How may an “ism” be defined? Which “isms” are important today? Made their appearance back then? Why did they first emerge in those years?

An idiot’s response to this question is that one would tack on an “ism” to the end of a concept. But the true definition of “ism” is the “conscious espousal of a doctrine in competition with other doctrines.” Modern “ism”s include Liberalism, Socialism, Conservatism, Communism and Capitalism. “Ism”s that rose up during that time period were Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Conservatism, Liberalism, Aristocratic Liberalism, Transcendentalism, Romanticism, Utopianism, Darwinism, Freudianism, Pseudo scientism, Utilitarianism, and Social Darwinism.

Many of this “ism” s arose to challenge one another such as Capitalism and Mercantilism. Socialism was a response to the poverty as running rampant though Europe. Communism was meant to challenge Capitalism the things that challenged workers. Conservatism was an attempt to try and keep things the way they were and how they functioned. Liberalism made an appearance in order to emphasis individual rights such as freedom of the press, freedom of religion, etc. Transcendentalism made its appearance as a protest to the general state of culture and society at the time. Romanticism was a revolt against “aristocratic, social, and political norms of the Enlightenment period and a reaction against the rationalization of nature. Utopianism came into existence as a response to the harsh economic conditions during the nineteenth century. Darwinism emerged to explain evolution and is best summed up in the phrase “survival of the fittest.” Freudianism emerged to explain the stages of development humans underwent. Utilitarianism emerged to prove that society was well since the rich were being supported by it and if the good of the many outweighs the good of the few, then society was well.

4. How did the attitudes of Romanticism differ from those of the Enlightenment?

Romanticism was primarily a theory of literature and the arts and artistic and intellectual movement. Romanticism was mostly a revolt against industrialization. They did not like the way things were going with Industrialization such as factories polluting the airways, the maltreatment of the workers, etc. In addition, Romanticism was a response to aristocratic, social, and political standards. It was also a rebellion against the reasoning of nature. It basically reacted against rationalism and materialism. It was highly emotional and emphasized “the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.” It was a new way of “sensing human experience and greatly affected social and public questions.” The best phrase to sum up Romanticism is Sturm und Drang” or storm and stress. They had a love for things that were unclassifiable such as moods, impressions, sights, sounds, etc. They basically loved describing ideas which could not be classified, explained, or “reduced to an abstract generalization.” They insisted on the value of feeling as well as that of reason. They were “aware of the importance of the subconscious mind” and were normally suspicious of logical ideas, thinking of them as “superficial” in a way. The idea of creative genius was also a fundamental Romanticism belief. They had an interest in “strange, distant societies and distant historical epochs.”