The Industrial Revolution has always been one of my favorite periods in history class. It is obvious to see how the revolution impacted Europe but it also had an impact on the rest of the world. The revolution had many pros and cons but it has been a controversial period in time because of the “survival of the fittest” attitudes that were present at the time. Authors such as Henry Mayhew took notice of the division of class and the rising importance of money.
As I previously mention there was “survival of the fittest” atmosphere present and mentioned in “A Boy Crossing Sweeper” even little children had to do whatever was possible in order to make ends meet this included stealing, begging and many other odds and ends. What was so different about this revolution is that those who where in the lower class now got the opportunity to move into better social status without the use of ordinary means such as marriage. Old money was out and new money was in.
When I compare the sense of nationality that was present during the time of World War 1 and World War 2, I compare the industrial Revolution to these periods in time literature wise. People expressed their sorrows from being overworked and under-payed through the use of literature. During this time specialization became a huge sector in the industry and the rise of unions occurred. The voice of factory workers and street cleaners are all present in literature.
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Simone,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you find this period interesting, and I agree that the industrial revolution was a time of important and formative changes in society. Your discussion here tends to be more generalizations than analysis, though. You only mention one specific text (Mayhew's interview with the crossings sweeper), but you don't really go into any depth on that one.