Chapter 23: The Challenge of the Modern West
Research Topics
Mass Society and Mass Politics
In what kinds of ways did the middle and working classes of Europe challenge the status quo in the age of mass society, mass consumption and the Second Industrial Revolution?
Between 1870 and the outbreak of the Great War, developments in the chemical and electrical industries, new management practices, and the rise of the engineer and the corporation created a Second Industrial Revolution. Once again, man's progress seemed without limit. But the effects of the Second Industrial Revolution went beyond simple efficiency and increased production, for it was during this period that we can begin to discern the origins of mass society as well. And this had the effect of producing a mass political climate of rising expectations as democrats, socialists, anarchists and feminists challenged society with demonstrations, riots, strikes and revolution
In what kinds of ways did the middle and working classes of Europe challenge the status quo in the age of mass society, mass consumption and the Second Industrial Revolution?
Between 1870 and the outbreak of the Great War, developments in the chemical and electrical industries, new management practices, and the rise of the engineer and the corporation created a Second Industrial Revolution. Once again, man's progress seemed without limit. But the effects of the Second Industrial Revolution went beyond simple efficiency and increased production, for it was during this period that we can begin to discern the origins of mass society as well. And this had the effect of producing a mass political climate of rising expectations as democrats, socialists, anarchists and feminists challenged society with demonstrations, riots, strikes and revolution
- Herbert Spencer and Social Darwinism (1857)
Spencer's argument that the progress of human society depended upon "the survival of the fittest": individual freedom was the key to evolutionary progress and not government intervention. - Pope Pius, The "Syllabus of Errors" (1864)
Controversial in its own day, the "Syllabus of Errors" condemned the freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. - Eyewitness Account of the Siege of Paris (1870/71)
An English observer describes the German siege of Paris following the defeat of Napoleon III at Sedan. - The Treaty of Berlin (1878)
After the Turks had been defeated by the Russian, the Great Powers gathered in Berlin at a congress that would settled the questions arising from the war. - The German Social Democrat Gotha Program (1875)
Founded by Lassalle in 1863, the German Social Democratic Party was the first mass socialist party, although the Gotha Program was ruthlessly criticized by Marx and Engels. - The Fabian Program of Reform (c.1900)
Founded in London in 1884, the Fabians argued that social reform could only come from an elite cadre of well-educated individuals. - Proclamation Inciting a Jewish Pogrom (1903)
The following declaration asking Christians to kill the Jews appeared in a journal on the eve of the pogrom. - Clemenceau, The Radical Program (c.1906)
The Radical Georges Clemenceau declares his differences with the socialism of Jean Jaurès.
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