Age of anxiety
Age of anxiety In the last part of the 18th century, a new revolution gripped the world that we were not ready for. This revolution was not a political one, but it would lead to many implications later in its existance. Neither was this a social or cultural revolution. This revolution was an economic one. The Industrial Revolution, as it know called by historians, changed the ways by how the world produced its goods. It also changed our societies from a mainly agricultural society to one that in which industry and manufacturing was in control. The industrial revolution first got its start in Great Britian, during the 18th century, which at the time was the most powerful empire on the planet. So, it was inevitable that the country with the most wealth would led in this revolution. After it adoption in England, other countries such as Germany, the United States and France joined in this revolution. During this time there were also many new technological advancements, socioeconomic and cultural problems that arised. In that time, there were two styles of newspapers, the quality press and the popular press. The quality press were subject to both stamp and paper duties and attracted readers at the higher end of the market. The popular press was aimed at the working class to promote political agenda concerned with this fraction of society. Several weeklies were launched in the nineteenth century, some legitimate others not. The legitimate papers included stamp duty in the cover price; some of these papers were the Sunday Times, the Observer and the News of the World. People who refused to pay the tax on principle produced the unstamped illegal papers such as the Poor Man's Guardian.By the very end of the nineteenth century the introduction to the really modern press arrived first with the Daily Mail. They printed news and gossip in easily readable paragraphs, women readers were catered for the first time, photos were used instead of drawings and headlines were bigger. Also at this time virtually all newspapers had a clear political identity. However the popular dailies kept their political identity under the surface so as not to alienate the mass readership and often did not address politics until actual elections were approachin On the technology front, the biggest advancements were in steam power. New fuels such as coal and petroleum, were incorporated into new steam engines. This revolutionized many industries including textiles and manufacturing. Also, a new communication medium was invented called the telegraph. This made communicating across the ocean much faster. But, along with this great leap in technology, there was an overall downfall in the socioeconomic and cultural situation of the people. Growth of cities were one of the major consequences of the Industrial Revolution. Many people were driven to the cities to look for work (as well as new social classes) , in turn the ended living in the cities that could not support them. The increase in population (urbanization) was nothing short of dramatic. England and Germany showed a growth rate of something more than one percent annually; at this rate, the population would double in about seventy years. In the United States the increase was more than three percent, which might have been disastrous had it not been for a practically empty continent and fabulous natural resources. Only the population of France tended to remain static after the eighteenth century. The general population increase was aided by a greater supply of food made available by the Agricultural Revolution, and by the growth of medical science and public health measures, which decreased the death rate and added to the population base.