The West in the 19th Century

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The West in the 19th Century

• The End of the West?
• and/or
• The Birth of the Modern?

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Introduction

• Were the achievements of the 19th century the
  pinnacle and culmination of Western culture?
• Do the developments of the 19th century mark the
  final decline and tragic end of Western culture?

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Topic Introduction

• Mass Consumerism
• Mass Politics
• Mass Sport (Mass Leisure Culture)
• Communications Revolution
• Modern Science
• Modern Art
• Modern Philosophy

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Le Bon Marche (Trans. The Good Deal)

• the department store owners sole passion was
  the conquest of Woman. He wanted her to be the
  queen in his shop. He had built this temple for
  her in order to hold her at his mercy. His
  tactics were to intoxicate her with amorous
  attentions, to trade on her desires, and to
  exploit her excitement
• (From The Ladies Paradise)

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Otto von Bismarck

• Politics is the art of the possible.
• The great questions of the day will not be
  settled by means of speeches and majority
  decisions but by iron and blood.
• Just for fun God watches over idiots,
  drunkards, and the United States of America

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Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee
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Pierre de Coubertin

• A country can truly call itself sporting when
  the majority of its people feel a personal need
  for sport.
• For each individual, sport is a possible source
  for inner improvement.
• May joy and good fellowship reign, and in this
  manner, may the Olympic Torch pursue its way
  through ages, increasing friendly understanding
  among nations, for the good of a humanity always
  more enthusiastic, more courageous and more pure.

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Samuel B. Morse

• What God hath Wrought

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Turner Rain, Steam, and Speed (1844)
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Charles Darwin

• I have called this principle, by which each
  slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the
  term of Natural Selection.
• Man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped,
  probably arboreal in its habits.

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Seligmann,German Surgeon Theodor Billroth at
Work in Vienna(1890)
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Emile Zola

• I am little concerned with beauty or perfection.
  I don't care for the great centuries. All I care
  about is life, struggle, intensity.
• If you ask me what I came into this life to do,
  I will tell you I came to live out loud.

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Monet Impression Sunrise 1874
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Van Gogh Starry Night 1889
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Kandinsky Composition VII (1913)
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Friedrich Nietzsche

• There are no eternal facts, as there are no
  absolute truths. There are no facts, only
  interpretations. There are no moral phenomena at
  all, but only a moral interpretation of
  phenomena.
• God is dead

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Gaugin (1897)Where Do We Come From? What Are
We? Where Are We Going?
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Coach Lerchs Final Thoughts

• During the 19th century, all remaining aspects of
  the modern world come into being in the West
• These, like the other isms, spread out and
  influence the entire world in the 20th century
• What is the sum effect of these changes on the
  West? (Is it a good thing or not?)