Chapter 9 Section 3Changing Attitudes and Values

Lesson Objectives

• Explain what values shaped the new social order.

• Understand how women and education sought change.

• Learn how science challenged existing beliefs

Social Classes in the late 1800’s• Small upper class, nobility &

super-rich industrialists• Middle class – group that grew

the fastest in 1800’s– Upper middle class – doctors,

scientists, lawyers– Lower middle class – teachers,

office workers, shop keepers

• Lower classes– Working class – large numbers in

U.S. & Western Europe, lived in tenements near factories

– Peasants/farmers – more in less industrialized nations

Middle Class Values

• Way of life> RESPECTABILITY– Families lived in large house

or apartment house– Strict code of etiquette –

rules of social behavior– How to dress, when to give

dinner parties, how long to mourn, when to write letters, etc

– Children “to be seen, not heard”

– Even small middle class homes had servants

Middle Class Values • Courtship & marriage

– Families had much to say as to whom children married

– Falling in love was becoming more accepted

– Strict rules of courtship

• Cult of domesticity – idealized women and the home; woman’s place was in the home– “Home sweet home”– Ideal woman = tender, self-

sacrificing care-giver, nest for children, peaceful home for husband

Women and educators tried to bring about change

• Women campaigned for variety of rights• Fairness in marriage, divorce & property laws (won right to own property in late

1880’s)• Supported temperance movement – limit or ban use of alcoholic beverages• Before 1850, women leaders in union movement, abolition of slavery > made

women realize their own laws were restricted• Women’s suffrage – women’s right to vote, became an issue in late 1800’s

– Faced intense opposition (cult of domesticity)– Edges of western world, New Zealand, western U.S. territories gave women the right to

vote before 1900

Public education & higher education

• Late 1800’s reformers got many governments to set up public schools

• Require basic education for all children– Three R’s – reading writing &

‘arithmetic > better citizens– Need for literate work force– Taught punctuality,

obedience to authority, disciplined work habits & patriotism (religion in European schools)

Secondary schools (high schools in U.S.)

• Classical languages (Latin & Greek), history & math for middle class sons

• Middle class daughters attended finishing schools – marry well & be better wives

Colleges & Universities

• Most students were sons of upper & middle classes

• Curriculum – ancient history, languages philosophy, religion, law

• Late 1800’s chemistry & physics added; engineering schools opened

• 1840’s few women’s colleges: Bedford College, England; Mt. Holyoke, U.S.

Science challenged existing beliefs

• Atomic theory – John Dalton (early 1800’s) modern atomic theory– Showed how different

kinds of atoms combine to make all chemical substances

• Dmitri Mendeleyev – table of all elements according to weight basis for periodic table

Science challenged existing beliefs

• Age of earth – (1820) Charles Lyell Principles of Geology– Evidence that the earth

was formed over millions of years

– (1856) workers in Neander Valley in Germany found remains of prehistoric people – Neanderthals

Science challenged existing beliefs• Charles Darwin (1859) published

On the Origin of the Species– All forms of life evolved into present

state over millions of years– Theory of natural selection

• Used Thomas Malthus’s (economist) idea that all plants & animals produced more offspring that the food supply could support

• Members of species compete to survive

– Nature “selected” those with best physical traits to adapt • Survival of the fittest

– Brought debates between scientists & religious leaders because Darwinism disputed creationism (debate continues to the present)

Social Darwinism

• Social Darwinism – used Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest in war to weeded out weak nations

• Survival of the fittest in business put weak companies out of business

• Encouraged racism – belief that one racial group is superior to another– Some Europeans & Americans claimed success of western

civilization was because of superiority of white race– Used this as reason for dominating colonial holdings & pushing

Native Americans onto reservations• Result> These ideas led to global expansion/imperialism,

discrimination & segregation

Role of religion in urban society• Christian churches & Jewish

synagogues remained center of communities; urged reforms– Catholic priests & nuns set up

schools & hospitals in urban slums– Jewish organizations like B’nai

B’rith provided social services• Social gospel – movement of

Protestant Christians to social service– Reforms in housing, health care &

education• William & Catherine Booth (1878)

founded the Salvation Army in London