1. Industry, Cities and Progress…Oh My!! The United States 1865-1914

2. My, There Sure Are a Lot of People!!! the U.S. population in… –1870 -- 38.5 million –1910 -- 92 million –1920 -- 123 million

3. Look at All the City-folk! NYC in… –1865 -- 0.5 million –1900 -- 3.5 million Chicago in… –1859 -- 29,000 –1910 -- > 2 million

4. Look at All the City-folk! In 1860, 20% of the country lived in the cities. By 1900, 40% lived in the cities. cities were “swollen by millions of new immigrants” “The frontier’s closed, man!” By the turn of the 20th Century, the U.S. was the 3rd largest nation in the world.

5. Let’s Invent Some New- Fangled Contraptions! 1869-1885 - four trans. railroads 1870 - Rockefeller + Standard Oil 1876 - Bell patents the telephone 1878 - Edison’s phonograph 1879 - Edison’s electric light People were talking a lot about “progress”

6. This’ll Really Blow Their Minds! 1859 - Darwin’s The Origin of the Species »“natural selection,” “evolution,” “survival of the fittest,” “determinism” (‘Maybe we’ll just keep getting better!”) 1895 - Sigmund Freud starts practicing “psychoanalysis,” or “the talking cure.” His books and practice give birth to modern psychology.

7. Thinking Ahead… What effect do you think the population increase is going to have on the country? How about the advance in technology? What about Darwin and Freud’s theories? What do you think the lit. of this period is going to be concerned with?

8. Realism “the truthful treatment of material” --Walter Dean Howells “verisimilitude” the faithful representation in literature of the actual events in life focus on the commonplace

9. Characteristics of Realism rejection of idealized, larger-than-life Romantic hero characters are more important than the plot and action; detailed descriptions of ordinary characters characters are related to nature, each other, their social class, their own pasts. “class” is important; emphasis on city-dwellers and working-class Americans. subjects drawn from slums, factories, newspapers (prostitutes, corrupt officials, workers, etc.) Events are usually plausible Diction is natural, not heightened or poetic

10. Characteristics of Realism avoidance of the exotic and overly- dramatic use of everyday (and regional) speech patterns to reveal regional differences and class distinctions Heavily influenced by Darwin, photography, newspapers, psychology, social reform movements, magazines, urbanization, immigration, muckraking, sensationalism

11. Thomas Eakins, The Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull), 1871. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Fitz Hugh Lane, Boston Harbor, 1855-58. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.