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Today, we discussed much of the material in chapter 24. After Napoleon's defeat, the rationalism of the Enlightenment gave way to Romanticism. "The post-revolutionary world invited artists and thinkers to put down their books and seek not to know but to feel." Given the violent excesses of the French Revolution, this repudiation of rationalism should come as no surprise. I showed paintings by Eugene Delacroix (Liberty Leading the People, 1830) and J.M.W. Turner (Shipwreck, 1823), both of which are reproduced in the text at page 741. These are good examples of the romantic style. The Delacroix depiction of the 1830 uprising in France is full of passion, as distinct from the much more controlled images of the earlier French Revolution. And Turner's Shipwreck paintings (he made several on the same theme) show a world in which man cannot necessarily reign in the forces of nature, even with the power of his intellect. I mentioned the German playwright and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), whose most celebrated work Faust, is based on the medieval legend of the man who sells his soul in order to know the hidden mysteries of the universe. This too is an important theme of the romantic period. Lastly, I discussed Germaine de Stael (1766-1817), whose essay "On the Influence of the Passions on the Happiness of Individuals and of Nations," is considered a fundamental statement of Romantic theory. With Romanticism also came a rejection of Enlightenment Deism, and new support for organized religion. Romantics were also nationalistic, often romanticizing their nation's past and creating hero/epic mythologies. This combination of religious zeal and nationalism led people in some countries to withdraw from Enlightened principles of religious toleration and freedom, and to move toward a new, reinvigorated Anti-Semitism. Hatred against Jews was further fueled by emerging pseudo-scientific theories of race and racial inferiority, which had unfortunately survived the Enlightenment and continued to gain adherents. In the visual arts and literature, Romanticism began to give way to realism, frank depictions and portrayals of ordinary people in everyday settings. The artist Jean-Francois Millet exemplifies this movement. I showed his 1857 painting The Gleaners. A later painting, The Man with the Hoe is in the textbook at 741. Realism was very much aided by a new technology that had become available during the 1830's: photography. And as industrialization and urbanization accelerated, photographers began to document visually the harsh conditions faced by the poor and dispossessed. I showed several photographs from the photographer Jacob Riis, perhaps the best known photographer to document the dark side of the Second Industrial Revolution. In literature, the writer Charles Dickens (1812-1870) depicted "the squalor of the lives of the poor, the psychology of industrial capitalists, and the experiences of neglected or abandoned children." Emile Zola (1840-1902) also examined the lives of ordinary people, such as coal miners (Germinal) and prostitutes (Nana). "Whereas Romanticism had resisted industrialization and retreated into nostalgia and the celebration of nature, Realism faced it ruthlessly." Considering the harsh conditions faced by the urban poor in the industrial age, and the sense of isolation and helplessness felt by many, Realism inevitably led to disenchantment. Given this disenchantment, some intellectuals embraced nihilism (belief in nothing), and promoted a violent attack on all authority. Closely related to nihilism was anarchism, an ideology which views government as complicit in social injustice. The Russian intellectual Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) is considered the father of the anarchist movement. Although anarchism never gained many adherents, because anarchists used terrorism as a means to destroy government they had a profound psychological impact on 19th century society. It was an anarchist named Leon Csolgosz who assassinated U.S. President William McKinley in 1901; anarchists had also been responsible for the assassination of the Russian Czar Alexander II in 1881, and for dozens of terrorist bombings. Far more successful than anarchism was the 19th century ideology Marxism, named after its leading proponent, the German intellectual Karl Marx (1818-1883). Marx, who authored the famous Communist Manifesto in 1848 with Friedrich Engels, believed that all of history was about class struggle, and that the workers or proletariat of the 19th century would seize power and create a classless, or communist paradise. As we will see after Spring Break, Marxism would profoundly impact the 20th century world, beginning of course with the Russian Revolution in 1917. Reminder: Test #2 Postponed Until 3/29!!!
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