Answer to Question #245923 in History for Collin

Question

Urban Society

1.    What challenges did the working classes face to becoming involved in politics across Europe in the nineteenth century? 

2.    How did the process work to unite citizens at the end of the 19th century, creating what we think of as “the masses,” or “the people?” 

3.    What connections did people like Chadwick and Jack London make between industrialization and daily life for people in the cities? 

Answer 1

1.     Getting active in politics was difficult for the working classes across Europe in the nineteenth century. Poor workers were frequently confined in tight, inhumane conditions. Employees were exposed to a variety of risks and dangers, including confined work quarters with limited ventilation, equipment injuries, and hazardous exposures to heavy metals, dust, and solvents.

2.     At the end of the nineteenth century, public opinion was defined for the goal of uniting citizens, resulting in what we now refer to as "the masses," or "the people," a manifestation of middle-class civilization. Its rise to political prominence was paralleled and aided by changes in society's economic and social structures, as well as movements in social stratification. Public opinion was first concentrated with domestic issues, but during the French Revolutionary conflicts and following the Congress of Vienna, the use of public opinion in international matters gained widespread acceptance among leaders. Various specific elements of modern democratic civilization put effective public opinion government in the realm of global affairs in jeopardy today.

3.     Industrialization and everyday life for city dwellers were linked by Chadwick and Jack London. In 1842, a civil servant named Edwin Chadwick self-published The Report from the Poor Law Commissioners on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Conditions of the Laboring Population of Great Britain, which detailed the world's first industrial society's deplorable social and environmental conditions. The Chadwick Report, the first of its kind in the United States, revealed a number of now-accepted trends in economic development, urbanization, and health in industrial towns. In brief, the Chadwick Report proved that material progress did not imply a universal improvement in urban health, among other things. Instead, it demonstrated how modern circumstances could create a health divide between social groupings.