Chapter 22 716-750 - Life in the Emerging Urban Society Homework 1. How did urban life change in the nineteenth century and how did this new urban society impact lives of the rich, poor and middle class?
During the nineteenth century, as urban populations grew, living conditions declined. People would crowd into cities due to the lack of transportation, sometimes with over 10 people in a single basement and without the proper knowledge of sanitation, they would literally let their poop flow down openly on the streets. Not to mention that more people died in cities than were born because disease spread so easily to the point where populations didn’t die out simply because of the immigrants. It wasn’t until the middle of the nineteenth century the people had enough of their unhygienic life-styles and called for improvement. One notable man in favor of improvement was Edwin Chadwick who, based on Jeremy Bentham’s idea of utilitarianism (the idea that people should move towards the “greatest good for the greatest number”), noticed that the sicknesses and the resulting deaths where probably one of the reasons for the horrible conditions. He suggested that the government take action and clean up the cities.
Once the government stepped in the general public health improved dramatically. Certain intellectuals, such as chemist Louis Pasteur created the germ theory that said that diseases were spread through living organisms that they could control. New improved medical techniques appeared as well such as antiseptics that helped destroy deadly sickness like typhoid, typhus, and cholera leading to lower mortality rates. The society benefited greatly from these scientific advancements. What made things even better was the improvements in urban planning and new public transportation systems through electric street cars.
While the gap between the rich and the poor endured,