Thrift 1875

Living in England during the industrial Revolution was like living in the golden age. Where everything flowed in abundance and the was little worries... well at least for the wealthy at least. Even though they were living like kings, England still had a problem with the enormous mass of poverty. The work of the lower class was miserable and dangerous. There was a huge gap between "the Haves and the Haves-nots"(Strayer). To the poor money was considered to be the ruler of everything, and the poor would only work from paycheck to paycheck and not worry about a future plan. They would "live in the moment", and were considered to act like a savage tribe. To some they believed that the problems with society reflected all upon the problems of the individual. And the only way to break that mold was to have "more extended knowledge of the uses of economy, frugality, and thrift will help them to spend their lives more soberly, virtuously, and religiously"(Strayer).

Pg 827-861

The Industrial Revolution was a key time in the world's history. It was the turning point for the world to branch off ideologies and practices from old custom's and start anew so to speak. For some people like Great Britain it was good for the wealth it produced and also for the power it brought along with it. Others thought it to be the destruction of mankind. With its birth, the population of the world went up by an estimate of 700 million people. With the replacement of renewable energy like wind, water, and muscle power of people and animals, we decided to use things like coal, oil, and natural gas which were better for greater quantities of energy. Even with these amazing new resources of energy, this took a toll on our planets health, industrial waste was emptied into rivers making them a hazard to one's health, the smoke from coal would pollute the air that caused a spike in respiratory illness. The first to become an industrial society was the British. With there new found textile industries, the British had dramatically increased there use of both cotton, and coal in the 19th century. This revolution "was enormously painful, even traumatic process, full of social conflict, insecurity, and false starts as well as new opportunities, and eventually higher standard of living, and greater participation in public life" (Strayer). For citizen of this society they had never dealt with such a change in their life and it doesn't surprise me that they were furious at the changes that were going on during this time. Another thing that was horrific about this time was how the poor where treated. The poor class would work long hours, for low wages, and even child labor was acceptable in the community. It wasn't long until the Industrial Revolution spread to other countries like Russia, and the United States. For the U.S. this is exactly what they were waiting for, with their "country's huge size, the ready availability of natural resources, its expanding domestic market, and its relative political stability combined to make the United States the world's leading industrial power" (Strayer). The U.S. was the golden child for the revolution because while this was going on there were still expanding at the same time. For the Russian it took them a longer time to get accustom to this new way of living. Russia believed that the use of serfdom was incompatible with modern civilization and the crippled the county's development overall. So for the people who migrated from rural arenas, it was rough for them as one observer said "people live in impossible condition: filth, stench, suffocating heat" (Strayer).

Echoes of Revolution

The Atlantic Revolutions were the spawn to many ideals within Europe after the impact that each of them had. One of the biggest ideals that Europe really took a matter into was the abolition of slavery. For the most part, slavery was considered a "violation of the natural rights of every person", and that it was economically inadequate. The British were the first to really take a stand to this problem, since during that day in age they were the leading military power, the Brits used there naval fleets to patrol and liberated any slaves that were being taken on slave ships in the West African settlements known as Freetown. Take noticed to what the British were doing, countries like Russia, most Latin American countries, and Brazil abolished slavery in the 19th century. By the start of the 20th century the only country that still practiced slavery was our own. The United States was the only place where it took a very devastating civil war to finally liberate slaves. But even after slaves got there freedom, most didn't have a dramatic change to there lives. They were still poor and rarely didn't receive land. Only in places like Haiti and Jamaica were there distribution of land to former slaves. The second ideal that the revolutions produced was the creation of nations around the world. The French Revolution stood for letting the "the people" have the power, and its government would equip them to defend there "French nation" from any enemies that they have. The idea of a nation was to live off older cultural identities, historical experiences, and collective memories of earlier cultures. The French and Americas saw what we call nationalism as stepping stone to a more extensive involvement in politics. This involvement had another purpose known as civic nationalism, this meant that a cluster of different people of various religious, and cultural backgrounds could transform into a dominant nation. The last ideals that spurred from the revolutions was the beginning of feminism. Feminism was never more organized until the aftermath of the Atlantic Revolutions. Women formed groups to battle for social, economical, and political justice. Women wanted to learn and go to school and provide for the families in a manner that only the men at that time could do in most countries. One group of women protesters known as the British Women's Social and Political Union started a campaign of violence where they destroyed railroads, and smashing windows. Eventually, women who were of the upper-middle class would gain the chance to go to universities. In Britain, women had hugely began being attracted to nursing, and in the U.S. social work became the "female-dominated profession".

Feb 2

As science was on the up rising to be considered a "new religion" to some people during the scientific revolution, Christianity was steadily on the decline in the West. Places like North America, and even Europe were victimized by "an increasingly godless West". People in the west started to be more materialistic to which is still plaguing our societies today. Martin Luther came to realization that our connection to God and where ones soul goes after they have died is purely basis off faith and through faith alone. He states that faith is "Neither the good works of the sinner nor the sacraments of the Church had any bearing on the eternal destiny of the soul, for faith was a free gift of God". Your faith means more to God than all the worldly possession that you own. Luther realized that faith is the only  thing that matters to God when judging a soul's final destination.