The Rise of Realism
THE RISE OF REALISM (1860-1914)
The U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) between the industrial North and the agricultural, slave-owning South was an important event that marked American history. Before the war, idealists championed human rights, especially the abolition of slavery; after the war, Americans increasingly idealized progress and the selfmade man.
Business boomed after the war. War production had boosted industry in the North and given it prestige and political clout. The enormous natural resources — iron, coal, oil, gold, and silver — of the American land benefitted business.
The new intercontinental rail system, inaugurated in 1869, and the transcontinental telegraph, which began operating in 1861, gave industry access to materials, markets, and communications.
In 1860, most Americans lived on farms or in small villages, but by 1919 half of the population was concentrated in about 12 cities. Problems of urbanization and industrialization appeared: poor and overcrowded housing, unsanitary conditions, low pay, difficult working conditions, and inadequate restraints on business. For this reason the labor unions grew.
From 1860 to 1914, the United States was transformed from a small, young, agricultural excolony to a huge, modern, industrial nation. A debtor nation in 1860, by 1914 it had become the world’s wealthiest state, with a population that had more than doubled. By World War I, the United States had become a major world power.
As industrialization grew, so did alienation. Characteristic American novels of the period (Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Jack London’s Martin Eden, and later Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy) depict the damage of economic forces and alienation on the weak or vulnerable individual. Survivors, like Twain’s Huck Finn, Humphrey Vanderveyden in London’s The Sea-Wolf, and Dreiser’s opportunistic Sister Carrie, endure through inner strength involving kindness, flexibility, and, above all, individuality.
SAMUEL
The U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) between the industrial North and the agricultural, slave-owning South was an important event that marked American history. Before the war, idealists championed human rights, especially the abolition of slavery; after the war, Americans increasingly idealized progress and the selfmade man.
Business boomed after the war. War production had boosted industry in the North and given it prestige and political clout. The enormous natural resources — iron, coal, oil, gold, and silver — of the American land benefitted business.
The new intercontinental rail system, inaugurated in 1869, and the transcontinental telegraph, which began operating in 1861, gave industry access to materials, markets, and communications.
In 1860, most Americans lived on farms or in small villages, but by 1919 half of the population was concentrated in about 12 cities. Problems of urbanization and industrialization appeared: poor and overcrowded housing, unsanitary conditions, low pay, difficult working conditions, and inadequate restraints on business. For this reason the labor unions grew.
From 1860 to 1914, the United States was transformed from a small, young, agricultural excolony to a huge, modern, industrial nation. A debtor nation in 1860, by 1914 it had become the world’s wealthiest state, with a population that had more than doubled. By World War I, the United States had become a major world power.
As industrialization grew, so did alienation. Characteristic American novels of the period (Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Jack London’s Martin Eden, and later Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy) depict the damage of economic forces and alienation on the weak or vulnerable individual. Survivors, like Twain’s Huck Finn, Humphrey Vanderveyden in London’s The Sea-Wolf, and Dreiser’s opportunistic Sister Carrie, endure through inner strength involving kindness, flexibility, and, above all, individuality.
SAMUEL