Taming the CityLife in the Emerging Urban Society in the 19th

Century

Industry and the Growth of Cities

• Cities were congested, dirty and unhealthy

• “Walking Cities”

• # of people living in cities of 20,000 + in England

• 1.5 million -1801 (17% of total population)

• 6.3 million- 1851 (35% of total population)

• 15.6 million- 1891 (54% of total population)

• Urbanization occurred quickly housing conditions horrible

Industry and the Growth of Cities

• Open Drains and sewers

• Unpaved Streets

• Manchester- 200 people shared single outhouse

• “millions of English men, women, and children were living in shit.”

• Legacy of poor rural housing conditions in preindustrial society

Public Health and Bacterial Revolution

• Edwin Chadwick- (Bethamite)

• Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)- “greatest good for the greatest number”

• Disease and death caused poverty

• Cholera epidemic of 1846

• Chadwick collected detailed reports and published findings in 1842 basis for 1st public health law

• 1846- created national health board and authorities began building modern sanitary systems

Public Health and Bacterial Revolution

• Miasmatic Theory- belief that people contract disease when they breathe the bad odors of decay and putrefying excrement

• 1840s-1840s- Shift in Thought• Suggestion that contagion is spread through the filth and

not caused by it• Germ Theory- Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)

• Pasteur found that fermentation depended on the growth of living organisms and that the activity of these organisms could be suppressed by heating a beverage

• Pasteurization

Public Health and Bacterial Revolution

• Robert Koch- Germany• Described life cycle of bacteria

• Joseph Lister (1827-1912)- English surgeon• Chemical disinfectant applied to a wound

dressing would “destroy the life of the floating particles”

• Antiseptic Principle

• Mortality rates began to decline

Urban Planning

• Practice of urban planning revived by 1850• France took the lead under Napoleon III (r. 1848-1870)

• Baron Georges Haussmann- razed Paris

• Central city not twice the size of New York’s Central Park lived 1/3 of the city’s 1 million inhabitants

• Few open spaced and only two public parks

• Created broad, straight, tree lined boulevards• Demolished worst slums• Better housing constructed for the middle class• More open spaces and parks• Improved sewers

Transportation

• Mass Public Transportation • 1870s- private companies operated horse drawn

streetcars• Electric streetcar- cheaper, faster and more

dependable

• 1886-horse-drawn streetcars of A-H, France, Germany, and G.B. carried 900 million riders

• 1910-electric streetcars 6.7 billion riders

• England 1901- 9% of the urban population was “overcrowded”

Rich and Poor and Those in Between

Social Structure•The standard of living increased for the

average person along with wage increases

•Hardship and poverty were not eliminated

•The wealthiest 5% of society received the 33% of the national income

•The wealthiest 20% of society received the 50-60% of the national income

•Bottom 30% received 10% or less of all income

•Income taxes on wealthy light or non-existant

Distribution of Income in Britain, Prussia, and Denmark in 1913

The Urban Landscape: Madrid in 1900 by Enrique Martinez Cubells y Ruiz

The painting shows the class distinctions: the carriages are for the wealthy upper middle class while the streetcars are for the lower members of the middle

The Middle Classes

•The Middle Class was divided into 3 groups: the upper middle class, the middle middle class, and the lower middle class

•The Upper Middle Class:

•Successful business families that were drawn to an aristocratic lifestyle

•Bought country homes, servants, private carriages, and titles of nobility in order to show their wealth

•Often married into noble families

The Middle Classes

•Middle middle class

•Moderately successful merchants, industrialists, lawyers, and doctors

•Comfortable but lacked great wealth

•New professions in engineering and management, which were created due to technological and industrial developments, fell under the middle middle class

The Middle Classes•Lower Middle Class

•Independent shop keepers, small traders, and tiny manufacturers

•White-Collar workers: salesmen, managers, and clerks that earned low wages but were determined to move up in the ranks of the middle class

•Elementary school teachers, nurses, and dentists moved up into the middle class through improvements in mass education

Middle Class Culture

•Food and servants were the major expenses of a middle class family

•The number if servants a family owned showed the magnitude of the family's income

•Dinner parties were the most popular social occasions and were very elaborate and elegant

"A Corner of the Table" by Paul-Émile Chabas

Middle Class Culture• Many families lived in rented apartments rather than homes

• The factory, department store, and sewing machine reduced prices for clothes and provided a larger variety of clothing

• Families paid extra to ensure that their children received the best education

• The middle class upheld a strict moral code of behavior

• Hard work, self-discipline and personal achievement

• Denounced gambling and drunkenness

• Praised sexual purity and fidelity

Advertisement for the Bon Marché department store in Paris

View of the elegant Garniér Opera House in Paris, France, ca. 1890-

1910

The Working Classes

•4 out of 5 people belonged to working class

•Livelihood depended on physical labor

•Did not employ servants

•The working class was divided into three categories: highly skilled, semiskilled workers, and unskilled workers

Urban Social Hierarchy

The Working Classes •Highly skilled workers- 15%

•Know as “labor aristocracy”

•Earned almost 2/3 the salary of the lower middle class

•Construction bosses, factory foremen, handicraft trades (cabinet makers, jewelry, printers), shipbuilders, and railway engineers

•Shared many of the moral and cultural values of the middle class, but they did not aspire to rise to the middle class. Instead they were focused on serving as natural leaders and role models to the other members of the working class

"The Labor Aristocracy"

The Working Classes

• Semiskilled workers

• Carpenters, bricklayers, pipe- fitters

• Made relatively good wages

• Unskilled Workers

• Day laborers, "helpers", street vendors, and market people

• Unorganized and divided, only united by the meager wages they received

• Domestic servants made up a large portion of the working class-many were young girls who moved from the country to the city in search of work and a husband

"A School for Servants"

Working Class Leisure and Religion

• Drinking was the most popular activity of the working class

• Heavy drinking became less and less socially acceptable

• Pubs and taverns drew many people as they were the sites of social and political events

• Modern spectator sports such as racing and soccer became popular

• Music halls and Vaudeville theaters were the working class version of the middle class opera houses

• Common themes- drunkenness, sexual intercourse and pregnancy before marriage, marital differences, and problems with mother-in-laws

Poster for Moulin Rouge dance hall

Working Class Leisure and Religion

•Religion was a source of comfort to many people

•The church attendance, especially in the urban classes did decline during the 19th century as people became more secular and less religious

•Churches came to be viewed as symbols of conservatism as the people became increasingly radical in their political views the church was seen as an ally to the people's political enemies