5-2 Emergence of Mass Society

What is Mass Society?

• The majority of people
• In this case, the lower classes
• Mostly located in cities
• Government now had to pay attention to them and their needs

Major Concerns

• Sanitation – water was polluted and there was no set way for people to get rid of their waste
• This led to diseases like cholera
• Unsafe housing – many builders hadn’t paid attention to safety issues when constructing apartments and other buildings

City Reforms

• Cities required health and building inspectors to check housing
• Dams & reservoirs were made to store safe, clean water for city use
• Sewage systems were installed in cities

• Social Structure

Wealthy Elite (5%)

• Industrialists, merchants, bankers, aristocrats
• The people with the most $$
• Upper middle class
• Doctors, lawyers, architects, accountants, engineers, etc

Middle class

• Lower middle class
• Small shopkeepers, traders, farmers
• Working class
• 80 % of the population
• Middle class – believed in hard work
• Went to church
• Manners were very important

White collar workers – between middle & working class

• Sales people, secretaries, phone operators, bookkeepers

Working class

• Improved wages & lowered cost of goods meant that they had more $$ to spend on fun
• 10 hr workdays meant more free time

Education

• Universal education – everyone goes to school (between 6 & 12 years old)
• New jobs meant that people had to be more educated ( like clerks, bank workers, salespeople, phone operators)
• Since everyone could vote, the gov’t wanted them educated
• Women also received an education

Literacy

• More and more people could read
• Magazines and newspapers adapted for the masses
• Added pictures, shorter, more colorful stories, and gruesome details to attract readers

Leisure

• After work, weekends, and summer vacation
• New forms of fun cost money
• Amusement parks and sports teams were created