Week Six

The Industrial Revolution took place in Europe specifically in Britain. The Industrial Revolution was considered the "age of man: and drew from the Scientific Revolution and accompanied the French Revolution in their efforts to transform Europe as well. Life for people during the Industrial Revolution changed drastically, in ways that life had not been changed since the Agriculture Revolution. One of the reasons why it affected the way of life was because the growth of population and the need for energy, local and regional ecological limits had to be pushed and more quantities. I believe that because they were advancing so quickly, they did not think thoroughly of where they putting the excessive waste from the industrial machinery. The reading states that Romantic poets, William Blake and William Wordsworth wrote poems that were against the “dark satanic mills” of industrial England and wanted to return to the “green and pleasant” way of life. I found it very interesting that in the earlier years of industrialization we were aware that we are polluting the earth and even then, people were against the pollution and excessive waste of machinery waste.

I felt like the reading that tried to argue why Europe and Britain were the first to industrialize was extremely vague because I felt like other parts of the world were doing the same, yet they were not as recognized. Islam had generated major advances that was way before the Industrial Revolution but the credit to them seems overlooked, same goes with India who in a way “over industrialized” themselves.  China was and still is the current leader in technological innovation. History is repeating itself. The explanation of “Why Britain?” mentioned that the British had established libraries that had information and publications of recent scientific advances, keeping track to know what else they could invent. Scientist and entrepreneurs worked together.  The British aristocrats encouraged the world of business and welcomed the works of those all different faiths. They just wanted innovative inventions to contribute to their industrial revolution.  

We had discussed in our last class discussion about the Feminist movement and during the industrial revolution, women expected to be their husbands “emotional haven” because they were out in a heartless cutthroat capitalist world. Women were the moral centers of family, educators of “respectability”, and to manage the consumption of the household, which explains why women are expected to like to shop. Back then, women were given the task to shop for the household and at this time, it was a new concept provided by industrial revolution. Status was determined by those who were able employ servants to help the lady of the house take care of the family, one could be middle class with one servant. The new wealth of the industrialization revolution aspired families to become middle class. The amount of women working in the labor force declined but was only temporally because women were back in the labor force working as teachers, clericals, and nurses. Many middle class women in the 19^th century were educated and were very much a part of the labor force.