Chapter 19: Industrial Revolution- Chapter source Question & Solutions

The Factory System, Science, and Morality: Two Views 1. According to Dr. Andrew Ure, why was industrialization good for Britain? How can the blessings of "physicomechanical science" lead to the improvement of humanity? 2. What criticism did Engels level at Ure and other industrialization optimists? Why did Engels think conditions for workers were getting worse, not better? 3. What consequences do these two writers see for society in the wake of technological change? What assumptions do they make about the relationship between economic development and the social order?

According to Andrew Ure, industrialization was the instrument that set Great Britain above the rest of the world. It was also an excellent opportunity for the poor to improve their lot in life. He stated "that the driving force (of the machines) leaves the attendant nearly nothing at all to do". . . . In his mind the poor were lazy complainers. 2. Engels researched industrialization and realized that as the machines improved, workers lost their jobs. The only group that benefited from industrialization was the one that included the few people at the top; the rest were exploited. 3. Ure believed that society would become wealthier and improve because of the modernizations; if the poor were left behind it was their own fault. Engels saw the oppression and degradation of the working class by the wealthy elite, who used them up and replaced them like machine parts. According to Engels, the poor are essentially pawns of the rich.

Learning to Live in a Global Economy 1. What constellation of private and national interests were at play in the relationships portrayed in image A? What significance might contemporaries have attached to the possibility that the British might have chosen to buy their cotton from an Asian source "over the way" rather than from North America? 2. In image B, what is the message of the cartoon's suggestion that the slave and the worker might find equality only in the fact that they are both in chains? What was at stake in comparing a worker with a slave in mid-nineteenth century Europe? Why does the caption read "Poor Consolation"? 3. How does the racial imagery of these cartoons relate to their intended message?

Learning to Live in a Global Economy 1. In Image A, the character John Bull represented textile manufactures. Bull was looking at the two American figures that were fighting, which represented the Civil War in the United States. The statement below represented the British attitude toward American commerce. The British could always turn to India for their supply of cotton. Note the deferential attitude of the Indian shopkeeper. 2. The Poor Consolation image is very powerful. The message to the French public was that the working class was in the same position as a slave. An armed guard looked on as the worker compared himself to a slave. The chains represent servitude and the elite's disregard for both groups. This was a scathing indictment against the French government. 3. The racial imagery could not have been more obvious. The Indian merchant was begging for British business and the slave was half naked, chained, and in the street.

Marriage, Sexuality, and the Facts of Life 1. The French doctor states that the impulse to have sexual relations is "one of the most powerful instincts" given to humans by nature, while simultaneously claiming that this natural instinct is "liable to be perverted". What does this reveal about his attitude toward "nature"? 2. What does he mean by "genesiac frauds"? Who is being deceived by this fraud? What consequences for individuals and for society as a whole does the doctor fear from this deception? 3. What does the story of Mrs. Pettigrew's death reveal about the dangers of childbirth and the state of obstetric medicine in the nineteenth century?

Marriage, Sexuality, and the Facts of Life 1. The French doctor believed that it was our nature to have sexual relations without any contraceptives. He believed that when husbands and wives used contraceptives, they could ruin their health by not remaining within the natural boundaries of sexual relations. 2. When he discussed "genesiac frauds", he meant contraception. He specifically mentioned withdrawal and condom use. Couples are being deceived (e.g., due to excessive sexual relations, the wife suffers from kidney pain, abdominal pains, inflammation of the uterus, and nervous disorders. The husband suffers from nervous disorders). 3. The story of Mrs. Pettigrew's death (sadly played out into modern times) was an example of the need for contraception. More than likely, Mrs. Pettigrew (like so many of her contemporaries) had been bred to death.

What assumptions about human behavior are contained in Malthus's argument that population will always increase more quickly than the available food supply? What possible checks on population growth does he consider? Why does he say that misery is "a necessary consequence" and vice only "highly probable"? Why does he conclude that society will never be "perfectible"? 2. The history of the Industrial Revolution and population growth in Europe in the nineteenth century seemed to prove that Malthus's belief in the ecological constraints on population growth were ill founded. What events (that he could not have predicted) changed the equilibrium between subsistence and population during this period?

Thomas Malthus on Population and Poverty 1. Malthus believed that Mother Nature created the perfect system, as far as plant and animals went. The problem was mankind. He believed that mankind would always produce beyond the food supply and the only answer was famine, disease, poverty, and infant malnutrition as "positive" checks on population growth. He believed that misery and vice were natural occurrences within a society that could not contain its natural moral boundaries. 2. Malthus could not have predicted the advancements in disease prevention and farming. Modern society's ability to grow an excess of crops, such as wheat and rice, changed the lives of millions.

Women and the Working Class 1. How did Flora explain the challenge facing individual workers and their families? 2. What is the goal of the Workers' Union that Flora proposed? 3. How did Flora use the history of the French Revolution to make her point about including women's rights in the movement for workers' collective action?

Women and the Working Class 1. The government will not help the workers. The grievances include unemployment, lack of proper health care, no unemployment benefits (yet begging is forbidden) and lack of food. Chapter 19 The Industrial Revolution and Nineteenth-Century Society 483 2. The Union would unite the workers and provide shelters for the disenfranchised, both old and young. 3. Before 1789, a poor person was little more than a "beast of burden". After the Revolution, poor males obtained citizenship and rights. While commending males for facilitating these reforms, Tristan demands that women be accorded the same liberties as men.