Section 53: The Rise of Modern "Isms" After 1815

The Advent of the "Isms" After 1815

• Background and Significance

  • The combined forces of industrialization and the French Revolution, particularly after $1815$, led to a wave of new doctrines and movements known as "isms."

  • These "isms" were critical catalysts for the general European Revolution of $1848$. For the $33$ years between $1815$ and $1848$, understanding these "isms" is key to grasping the era's long-term meaning.

  • They represented systematic attempts to define coherent sets of political, cultural, or social beliefs.

  • Advocates of these "isms" often organized groups or public "movements" to implement their ideas by changing political institutions or transforming aspects of modern social and cultural life.

• Emergence of "Isms" in English Language

  • The words for these doctrines appeared at different times across European languages, with English usage often following their emergence elsewhere.

  • Liberalism: First appeared in English in $1819$.

  • Radicalism: First appeared in English in $1820$.

  • Socialism: First appeared in English in $1832$.

  • Conservatism: First appeared in English in $1835$.

  • $1830s$ saw the emergence of: individualism, constitutionalism, humanitarianism, feminism, and monarchism.

  • $1840s$ coined: nationalism and communism.

  • Capitalism: Not used in English until the $1850s$ (though French capitalisme is much older).

  • Marxism: Came into use even later, despite Marx's doctrines reflecting the upheavals of the $1840s$.

• Evolution of Ideas

  • The rapid coinage of new "isms" did not always mean entirely new ideas; many had roots in the Enlightenment or earlier (e.g., people valued liberty before "liberalism" existed).

  • Their appearance signifies a move towards more systematic articulation of ideas, coupled with intense activism and partisanship generated by the French Revolution.

  • People were compelled to reconsider and analyze society comprehensively and compete for influence within expanding modern national states.

• Definition of an "Ism"

  • Excluding terms like hypnotism or favoritism, an "ism" can be defined as the conscious espousal of a specific doctrine in competition with other doctrines.

  • Many new "isms" integrated analytical themes from the emerging social sciences and fostered institutions to disseminate ideas to broader social groups and movements.

  • This period marked a crucial link between new knowledge and new forms of social and political action.

  • The "isms" formed in the roughly $30$ years after the Peace of Vienna are indispensable for understanding post-$1815$ world history.

Romanticism

• Nature and Chronology

  • One of the most influential "isms," though not explicitly political.

  • The word "romanticism" first appeared in English in the $1840s$ to describe a movement that was already half a century old.

  • Primarily a theory of literature and the arts, it profoundly affected wider thought.

• Key Exponents

  • England: William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

  • France: Victor Hugo, René Chateaubriand, George Sand.

  • Germany: Friedrich von Schiller, Friedrich Schlegel, among others.

• Core Inquiry and Rejection

  • Raised fundamental questions about human knowledge, the importance of various human senses and faculties, the relationship between thought and feeling, the meaning of the past and time, and artistic creativity.

  • Rejected the $18^{th}$ century's emphasis on classical rules and rational order in aesthetic theory.

• Central Tenets

  • Celebration of the Idiosyncratic: Highly valued the unique visions of creative individuals over the symmetries of classical art.

  • Defiant Artistic Rebels: Contributed to the modern image of artists as rebellious figures.

  • New Way of Sensing Experience: Affected thinking on social and public questions, as well as debates on culture and arts.

• Love of the Unclassifiable

  • A fundamental romantic attitude.

  • Embraced moods, impressions, scenes, stories, sights, sounds, and concretely experienced things; personal idiosyncrasies or peculiar customs that the intellect could not fully classify or explain.

  • Insisted on the value of feeling and nonrational experiences alongside reason.

  • Awareness of the subconscious mind.

  • Often suspected perfectly lucid ideas as superficial.

  • Loved the mysterious, the unknown, and the half-seen.

• Interest in History and the "Gothic"

  • Fostered a new interest in unfamiliar, distant societies and historical epochs.

  • In contrast to Enlightenment philosophes who deplored the Middle Ages as a time of error, Romantics viewed them with respect and nostalgia, finding fascination, color, and spiritual depth.

  • The "Gothic" style, deemed barbarous by rationalists, strongly appealed to Romantics.

  • Example: The British Parliament buildings were rebuilt in the Gothic architectural style during the $1840s$ as part of a Gothic Revival.

• Creative Genius

  • Another fundamental romantic belief: the idea of original or creative genius.

  • Defined as a dynamic spirit transcending rules, unexplainable by analysis or classification; genius was thought to make its own rules.

  • Could manifest as individual genius (artist, writer, historical figures like Napoleon), the genius of an age, or the Volksgeist (spirit of a people or nation), as put forward by Herder.

  • Volksgeist represented an inherent national character, leading each people to develop uniquely, discernible only through historical study.

  • This concept often merged with new forms of nationalism, providing new impetus for historical study.

• Political Implications:

  • Romantics were found across the political spectrum: conservative, liberal, and radical.

  • Their emphasis on individual creativity typically led them to be critical of rigid social and cultural hierarchies.

  • Romanticism infused cultural and emotional passions into the more overtly political "isms" that rapidly evolved after $1815$.

The Industrial Revolution in Britain

• Economic Growth Indicators (Based on Sources of Income)

  • British national income experienced approximately an eightfold increase during the $19^{th}$ century.

  • Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing: Income from these sectors remained roughly constant in absolute terms.

    • However, their share of total national income drastically declined from approximately $1/3$ to $1/16$.

  • Manufacturing, Trade, and Transportation:

    • By $1851$, these sectors accounted for half of the national income.

    • By $1901$, their contribution rose to three-quarters of the national income.

  • Income from Abroad: This category, encompassing interest and dividends from loans and investments outside Great Britain, grew rapidly after the $1850s$.

Classical Liberalism

• Origins and Spread

  • First emerged in Spain among opponents of Napoleonic occupation, who also sought internal political reforms.

  • The term spread to France, where it signified opposition to royalism following the Bourbon restoration in $1814$ and gained intellectual traction through writers like Benjamin Constant.

  • In England, many Whigs and even some Tories adopted liberal views, influenced by theorists such as John Stuart Mill. A Liberal Party became a significant force in British politics in the $1850s$.

• Core Principles of $19^{th}$ Century Liberalism

  • Emphasized individual rights and liberties as essential in any well-ordered, modern society.

  • Believed in what was modern, enlightened, efficient, reasonable, and fair.

  • Held confidence in human capacity for self-government and self-control.

  • Highly valued parliamentary or representative government, characterized by:

    • Reasonable discussion and legislation.

    • Responsible ministries.

    • Impartial and law-abiding administration.

  • Demanded full public transparency for all government actions, asserting the need for freedom of the press and rights of assembly.

  • Considered a good constitutional monarchy the most likely system to realize these political advantages.

  • Outside England, explicit written constitutions were generally favored.

• Evolution of Democratic Views

  • Initially, liberals were not democrats and generally opposed universal male suffrage, fearing "mob rule" or irrational political actions.

  • Only gradually and reluctantly did they accept the idea of universal male suffrage as the $19^{th}$ century progressed.

  • Many continued to oppose female suffrage, though some prominent liberals, like John Stuart Mill, argued for equal voting rights for women.

• Economic Doctrines

  • Subscribed to the "rights of man" (from American and French Revolutions) with a strong emphasis on property rights.

  • Followed economic theories of the British Manchester School or French economist J. B. Say.

  • Advocated laissez-faire capitalism and free markets.

  • Were suspicious of government interventions to regulate business.

  • Sought to abolish the guild system where it still existed.

  • Disapproved of attempts by industrial laborers to organize unions.

• International and Societal Views

  • International Trade: Advocated freedom of trade, achieved by lowering or abolishing tariffs, to facilitate easy exchange of products and increase wealth and living standards through specialization (comparative advantage).

  • Progress: Believed that the growth of wealth, production, invention, and scientific progress would lead to the general advancement of humanity.

  • Social Barriers: Generally opposed established churches and landed aristocracies, viewing them as obstacles to progress.

  • Values: Believed in tolerance and education.

  • Peace and Order: Held a profoundly civilian attitude, disliking wars, conquerors, armies, and military expenditures.

  • Favored orderly change through legislative processes and recoiled from the idea of revolution.

  • Liberals on the Continent often admired Great Britain as they worked to establish their own national institutions.

Victor Hugo, "A Preface to Cromwell" (1827)

• Context

  • Romantic cultural themes became widespread across Europe in the early $19^{th}$ century, particularly influencing writers and artists in Britain, Germany, and France (e.g., Victor Hugo, $1802-1885$).

  • Like other Romantics, Hugo rejected classical literary guidelines.

  • His works often featured mysterious settings, historical events, social rebels, and marginalized characters.

  • He penned a Romantic manifesto in the preface to his lengthy play Cromwell, which was never performed during his lifetime.

• Excerpts and Key Ideas

  • Critique of French Theatre: Hugo argued that the Greek theatre was much freer, restricted only by its national and religious purpose, while French theatre suffered from conditions foreign to its essence.

  • Rejection of Tradition: Challenged the repeated refrain to "Follow the rules! Copy the models!"

  • Call for Artistic Liberty: Declared that the time had come for liberty to penetrate all domains, especially "the domain of thought," advocating for a dismantling of "theories and poetic systems."

  • No Absolute Rules: Asserted that "There are neither rules nor models; or, rather, there are no other rules than the general laws of nature… and the special rules which result from the conditions appropriate to the subject of each composition."

  • Genius as Intuitive: Proposed that "Genius, which divines rather than learns, devises for each work the general rules from the general plan of things, the special rules from the separate ensemble of the subject treated."

  • Poet's Guidance: Maintained that the poet should "take counsel therefore only of nature, truth, and inspiration which is itself both truth and nature."

Radicalism, Republicanism, Socialism

Radicalism

• Origin (England)

  • The term "radicalism" originated in England around $1820$, with the "Philosophical Radicals" proudly adopting the label.

  • Included early working-class leaders and industrial capitalists who were still unrepresented in Parliament.

  • Carried on the legacy of English "Jacobins" like Thomas Paine, whose ideas had been discredited during the French Revolutionary Wars.

  • Main Goal: To expand liberal claims for individual rights to a much broader segment of the population.

• Philosophical Radicals

  • Similar to French philosophes before the Revolution.

  • Followers of Jeremy Bentham, who wrote extensively from $1776$ to $1832$ to reform English criminal and civil law, the church, Parliament, and the constitution.

  • Deduced the ideal form of institutions from fundamental human nature and psychology, dismissing arguments based on history, usage, or custom.

  • Sought to address the "roots" of social and political life (hence "radical," from the Latin for "root").

  • Demanded a complete reconstruction of laws, courts, prisons, poor relief, municipal organization, "rotten boroughs," and the "fox-hunting clergy."

  • Vehemently insisted on parliamentary reform.

  • Detested the Church of England, the peerage, and the squirearchy; many advocated abolishing royalty (the British monarchy only gained widespread popularity much later, during Queen Victoria's reign, $1837-1901$).

  • Essentially democratic: Demanded a vote for every adult Englishman.

  • After the Reform Bill of $1832$, industrial capitalists generally aligned with liberals, while working-class leaders remained radical democrats.

Republicanism

• Continental Manifestation of Radicalism

  • Represented a militant form of radicalism on the Continent.

  • Viewed the years of the First French Republic ($1790s$) not as a period of horror (like liberals and conservatives, who associated it with the Reign of Terror), but as a time of hope and progress, cut short by forces of reaction.

  • Republicans were a minority, even in France, and fewer still in places like Italy and Germany.

  • Demographics: Primarily drawn from the intelligentsia (students, writers), working-class leaders protesting social injustice, and elderly veterans or their descendants who cherished the memory of the Republic of '$93$ and its glories.

  • Organization: Often formed secret societies due to police repression.

  • Anticipated future revolutionary upheavals as the means to advance liberty, equality, and fraternity.

• Political and Social Stance

  • Strong proponents of political equality, demanding universal male suffrage.

  • Favored parliamentary government but were less concerned with its methodical operation than liberals.

  • Strongly anticlerical, viewing the Catholic Church as an implacable enemy of reason and liberty (influenced by the internecine struggle between church and republic during the French Revolution and the political influence of Catholic clergy).

  • Opposed all forms of monarchy, including constitutional monarchy, and were intensely hostile to the church and aristocracy.

  • Considered themselves conscious heirs of the French Revolution, organized in national and international secret societies.

  • Their willingness to overthrow existing regimes by force led many, including liberals, to perceive them as little better than anarchists.

Socialism

• Transition from Republicanism

  • Republicanism often transitioned into socialism; socialists generally shared republican political attitudes but extended their views further.

• Common Ideas of Early Socialists (Pre-1848)

  • Critique of Economic System: All regarded the existing economic system and wealth distribution as aimless, chaotic, and outrageously unjust.

  • Critique of Economic Power: They found it improper for wealth owners to wield vast economic power—to control employment, set wages and hours for private interest, and direct society's labor primarily for private profit.

  • Challenge to Private Enterprise: Questioned the value of private enterprise, advocating for some degree of communal ownership of productive assets (e.g., banks, factories, machines, land, transportation).

  • Rejection of Competition: Disliked competition as a guiding economic or social principle, proposing principles of harmony, cooperation, or association instead.

  • Opposed Laissez-Faire: Flatly and absolutely rejected the laissez-faire economics promoted by liberals and political economists.

  • Focus on Distribution: While liberals prioritized increasing production, early socialists focused on a fairer or more equal distribution of income among all useful members of society.

  • Expansion of Equality: Believed that steps toward social and economic equality would either surpass or fully realize the civil and legal equality affirmed by the French Revolution.

Notable Early Socialists

• Robert Owen ($1771-1858$) - British Pioneer of Social Reform

  • One of the first cotton industrialists and socialists from Manchester and the Scottish Lowlands.

  • Appalled by the harsh conditions of factory workers, he created a model community for his employees.

    • Implemented high wages, reduced working hours, strictly disciplined vice and drunkenness.

    • Built schools, housing, and company stores offering necessities at low prices.

  • Moved from paternalistic capitalism to a lifelong campaign for social reforms.

  • His efforts were hampered by opposition from other industrialists and his unpopular radical religious views.

  • In $1825$, he founded an experimental colony called New Harmony in Indiana, USA, which lasted about five years.

• French Socialists (Driven by Incomplete Revolution)

  • Many early socialists were French, inspired by the belief that the French Revolution was unfinished.

  • Count de Saint-Simon ($1760-1825$):

    • A nobleman who fought in the American War of Independence and accepted the French Revolution.

    • Authored numerous books on social problems in his later years.

    • He and his followers, the "Saint-Simonians," were early proponents of a planned society.

    • Advocated public ownership of industrial equipment and capital, managed by "great captains of industry" or "social engineers."

    • Proposed vast projects (e.g., digging a canal at Suez) and the coordination of society's labor and resources for productive ends.

  • Charles Fourier ($1772-1837$):

    • A doctrinaire thinker critical of all social institutions.

    • Proposed organizing society into small communal units called "phalansteries."

    • Each phalanstery was conceived to house $1,620$ individuals, with each person performing work suited to their natural inclinations.

    • No phalansteries were successfully established in France, but some were founded in the United States (e.g., Brook Farm in Massachusetts, $1842-1847$, run by literary figures).

  • Critique of Utopian Schemes: Critics pointed out that these schemes (like Owen's New Harmony and Fourier's phalansteries) required the withdrawal of individuals from society and failed to address the complex, interconnected social problems of the modern industrial age.

• Socialism Among French Working Classes (Pre-1848)

  • The most politically significant form of socialism before $1848$ was a blend of revolutionary republicanism and socialism stirring among the French working classes.

  • Post-$1792$ Republicanism: Parisian workers had been republican since $1792$ and viewed the Revolution as merely interrupted, not complete.

  • Hardships: Faced political impotence, legal discrimination, mandatory identity papers signed by employers, and mounting pressures from industrialization.

  • Hostility to Elites: These conditions fueled deep hostility towards the wealthier, property-owning classes.

  • Louis Blanc: A Parisian journalist who became a key spokesman.

    • Editor of Revue de progrès and author of The Organization of Work ($1839$), a major early socialist text.

    • Proposed a system of "social workshops" or state-supported manufacturing centers, where workers would labor autonomously, free from private capitalist intervention.

Communism

• Emergence as a Synonym for Socialism

  • At this time, "communism" was an emerging synonym for socialism.

  • A small group of German revolutionaries, mainly exiles in France, adopted the name in the $1840s$.

  • This group is historically significant because it included Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

  • Marx and Engels' Usage: They consciously used the term in The Communist Manifesto ($1848$) and to distinguish their brand of socialism from that of "utopians" like Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Owen.

  • The word fell out of general use after $1848$ but was revived with new meaning after the Russian Revolution of $1917$.

Feminism

• Emergence and Terminology

  • Feminism emerged as a new political and cultural movement in the early $19^{th}$ century.

  • The term "feminist" first appeared in the $1830s$ when some women in France used it to describe themselves.

• Shared Ideals and Goals

  • Feminism had various strands, but most feminists shared ideas with liberals, radicals, or socialists, particularly the belief in the fundamental rights of every person.

  • Its primary goal was to expand the rights of women in both public and private life.

  • Drew heavily on the legacy of the French Revolution and its concepts of human rights.

  • Feminists argued that the "rights of man" inherently extended to women, much as republicans and socialists argued for the rights of the poor and working classes.

• Influential Early Writings and Focus Areas

  • Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ($1792$) was a foundational text.

  • Some feminists primarily sought to secure new voting and civil rights for women (egalitarian feminism).

  • Other feminists, while potentially supporting suffrage, focused more on reforming laws governing family life or advancing women's rights in education, cultural life, and the economy.

  • Both political and social strands of early $19^{th}$ century feminism were rooted in Enlightenment ideas of human rights, reform, education, and progress, linking them to $18^{th}$ century predecessors like Condorcet and Olympe de Gouges.

• Egalitarian Feminism and National Differences

  • Egalitarian Feminists: Stressed the shared capacity for reason and universal human rights between women and men.

  • Campaign for Political Rights: Developed more rapidly in Britain and America before $1848$. This might reflect:

    • The wider spread of male voting rights in these nations earlier.

    • French republicanism's hostility to female political activities during the later stages of the French Revolution.

    • The Napoleonic Code's establishment of women in a subordinate position within a patriarchal legal system.

  • Consequently, early French feminists often concentrated on social, cultural, or legal rights rather than suffrage campaigns.

• English Feminists

  • First English advocates included Philosophical Radicals and followers of Robert Owen.

  • Anne Wheeler and William Thompson: Published Appeal on Behalf of Women ($1825$), which attributed women's inferior status to flaws in the economic system.

  • Similar arguments were found in Owen's writings and those of his feminist friend, Scottish writer Frances Wright.

  • Harriet Taylor and John Stuart Mill: Provided the most influential English arguments for women's political rights.

    • They were intellectual partners for over $20$ years, eventually marrying.

    • From the $1830s$ onward, they produced significant works on the social, legal, and political inequalities faced by women.

    • Mill's renowned book, The Subjection of Women ($1869$), explicitly recognized Taylor's decisive influence, though she had passed away before its publication.

    • Mill's case for women's rights rested on two pillars: women's inherent equality with men (justifying equal rights) and the utilitarian argument that society would greatly benefit from women's increased participation in public life.

    • This book was translated into major European languages and profoundly influenced feminist campaigns for political and legal rights across nations.

• American Feminists

  • Launched their own campaign for voting rights at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York in $1848$.

  • Leaders like Elizabeth Cady Stanton declared women were entitled to vote because they were "created equal" with men.

• Continental Feminists (France, $1830s-1840s$)

  • Socialists like Saint-Simon and Fourier critically examined family history, inspiring followers to analyze traditional restrictions on women's rights.

  • Women activists in Saint-Simonian groups established feminist journals with assertive titles like The Free Woman and The New Woman.

  • A new generation of women writers expanded on Germaine de Staël's argument for women to develop their intelligence and reason for society's benefit.

  • Universal Demands: All feminists advocated for better education for young women, reforms in property and divorce laws to enhance women's independence, and the right for women to participate in public debates.

  • Differentiation in France: Many French feminists diverged from strictly egalitarian arguments, emphasizing specific differences between men and women.

    • They highlighted the special responsibilities of motherhood, assigning women an essential role in educating future generations.

    • This led to the argument that only well-educated, competent women could raise intelligent children.

    • Consequently, feminists strongly supported new schools for girls and sought access to higher education for women (public secondary schools for girls in France were not established until the $1880s$).

• Prominent French Feminist Writers

  • Flora Tristan ($1803-1844$): Her travel writings explored social constraints on women in both South America and Europe.

  • George Sand ($1804-1876$): The most influential literary woman of the $1840s$.

    • Her numerous novels and essays often depicted independent women.

    • Her personal life, characterized by wearing male clothing, smoking cigars, and living with men outside marriage, was as famous and controversial as her books.

    • She garnered significant support across Europe, serving as a model for new forms of female cultural and political expression.

    • Conversely, she became a symbol for opponents of the new feminism; the term "George Sandism" was used to criticize women whose behavior seemed radical or unconventional.

  • This hostility underscored feminism's status as an expanding post-revolutionary "ism," though its main political and legal objectives would largely be achieved in the $20^{th}$ century.

Other "Isms"

Conservatism

• Political Stance (Continental Europe)

  • Remained a strong force after $1815$.

  • Upheld institutions of absolute monarchy, aristocracy, and the church.

  • Opposed the constitutional and representative government sought by liberals.

• Philosophical Foundations

  • Built upon the ideas of Edmund Burke.

  • Rejected Enlightenment theories of universal natural rights.

  • Burke argued that institutions should evolve gradually through the traditions of each people, rather than attempting to realize freedoms abruptly that were not historically prepared for.

  • This doctrine appealed to those seeking to define and defend long-established social or political practices, though it held less appeal for populations whose past had been marked by misfortune.

• Connection to Nationalism and Monarchy

  • Conservatism sometimes merged with nationalism by stressing the firmness and continuity of national character.

  • However, nationalists during this period were more frequently liberals or republicans.

  • Monarchism was inherently conservative, often reactionary, diverging from the "enlightened despotism" of the previous century.

  • Following the French Revolution, aristocracy and monarchy united, solidifying their shared defense of "the throne and the altar."

Humanitarianism

• Profound and Universal Sentiment

  • A feeling that ran deeper than other "isms," shared in various ways by people across all political parties.

  • Characterized by a heightened concern for cruelty inflicted upon others.

  • In this area, the thought of the Age of Enlightenment experienced no reversal.

• Social Reforms and Moral Awakening

  • Torture had been abolished, and even conservative monarchical governments showed no inclination to restore it.

  • Conditions in prisons, hospitals, insane asylums, and orphanages attracted significant new humanitarian attention and gradually improved.

  • Humanitarian activists actively sought to alleviate the miserable social positions of pauper children, chimney sweeps, women working in mines, and enslaved people in the Americas.

  • Signs of moral doubt began to surface among Russian serf owners and American slave owners.

  • Actions such as degrading human beings, using them as work animals, torturing them, unjust confinement, holding them as hostages, abusing their bodies, tearing families apart, and punishing relatives were increasingly viewed by Europeans as contrary to modern, enlightened civilizations.

  • The Christian concept of the inviolability of the human person, now manifested in a more secular and worldly manner, began to drive efforts to relieve human suffering.