1. ~The Industries Revolution~
~What was it? When was it?~
The Industrial Revolution was a period of great change. new industries developed rapidly as a
result of a number of new inventions and the way in which things were produced, and the way
in which people lived and worked, changed rapidly as a result of these developments.
It is hard to say exactly when the Industrial revolution started or when it finished. Many factors
influenced the changes that happened which makes studying the Industrial Revolution a little
more complex than some other areas of History.
From: http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/IndustrialRevolution/index.htm
The era known as the Industrial Revolution was a period in which fundamental changes
occurred in agriculture, textile and metal manufacture, transportation, economic policies and
the social structure in England. This period is appropriately labeled “revolution,” for it
thoroughly destroyed the old manner of doing things; yet the term is simultaneously
inappropriate, for it connotes abrupt change. The changes that occurred during this period
(1760-1850), in fact, occurred gradually. The year 1760 is generally accepted as the “eve” of
the Industrial Revolution. In reality, this eve began more than two centuries before this date.
The late 18th century and the early l9th century brought to fruition the ideas and discoveries of
those who had long passed on, such as, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes and others.
Introduction to the Industrial Revolution from a paper by
Joseph A. Montagna from
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html
~What did the landed gentry think of the ‘nouveau riche’?~
Landed gentry is a traditional British social class consisting of "gentlemen" in the
original sense; that is, those who owned land in the form of country estates to such an
extent that they were not required to actively work, except in an administrative
capacity on their own lands. The estates were often (but not always) made up of
tenanted farms, in which case the gentleman could live entirely off rent income.
The designation originally referred exclusively to commoners in such a position, but
usage became more fluid over time; by the late 19th century, it was commonly
applied to nobles such as the Duke of Westminster who lived in such a manner. The
famous book series Burke's Landed Gentry recorded the members of this class. The
landed gentry ranked approximately between the bourgeois middle class and the
aristocracy in terms of social prestige and wealth. Successful members of the
bourgeois frequently aspired to (and often did) use their accumulated wealth to
establish themselves as landed gentry.
From: http://www.answers.com/topic/landed-gentry-1

2. Often referred to as parvenu, members of the nouveau riche, are often discriminated
against by the “Old Money” sects of society since they “lack the proper pedigree.”
These new comers to economic freedom are subject to even greater scrutiny from
their lack of historical prestige as seen through Dye’s comments which reference new
rich as “uncouth” and “uncultured.” The behavior of the nouveau riche is often
satirized by American society by “implying that stereotyped, rather than real,
behavior patterns are copied.” Many people have made claims to the inferiority of
those of new money as compared to those with old money. Many have made claims
that nouveaux riches “lack political and cultural sophistication” and others make
comparisons saying that the old rich are “more sophisticated than the less
cosmopolitan nouveau riche.” These assumptions further perpetuate the differences
between the two and lead to even further stereotypes and have lasted for well over a
century. In the 1920’s a Mrs. Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte protested that “the
nouveau riche…is making places like Palm Beach no more exclusive than Coney
Island. Newport, the last stronghold of the elite, has the moneyed intruder at the
gates…Undesirables are penetrating everywhere.”
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouveau_riche
I think that the landed gentry did not like the ‘nouveau riche’, as they may have been
seen as taking away some of the prestige of their class. Also, they may have believed
that the ‘nouveau riche’ did not deserve the prestige, as they had cumulated their
wealth in their life time, and did not have the ‘breeding’ or ‘proper pedigree’ of the
landed gentry.
~What was life like for the urban poor?~
see this website, it’s really good! http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/articles/poverty.html
19th century Britain saw a huge population increase accompanied by rapid
urbanization stimulated by the Industrial Revolution. The large numbers of skilled
and unskilled people looking for work kept wages down to barely subsistence level.
Available housing was scarce and expensive, resulting in overcrowding. These
problems were magnified in London, where the population grew at record rates.
Large houses were turned into flats and tenements, and as landlords failed to
maintain these dwellings slum housing developed. Kellow Chesney described the
situation as follows: "Hideous slums, some of them acres wide, some no more than
crannies of obscure misery, make up a substantial part of the, metropolis... In big,
once handsome houses, thirty or more people of all ages may inhabit a single room."
(The Victorian Underworld)
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_era#Poverty