Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the first edition
- Introduction to the new edition
- Part I The setting
- Part II A world view
- 3 A counterrevolution of values
- 4 The “English way of life”?
- 5 The wrong path?
- Part III Toward behavior
- Part IV Industrialism and English values
- Appendix: British retardation – the limits of economic explanation
- Notes
- Index
3 - A counterrevolution of values
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the first edition
- Introduction to the new edition
- Part I The setting
- Part II A world view
- 3 A counterrevolution of values
- 4 The “English way of life”?
- 5 The wrong path?
- Part III Toward behavior
- Part IV Industrialism and English values
- Appendix: British retardation – the limits of economic explanation
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The whole of the island … set as thick with chimneys as the masts stand in the docks of Liverpool; that there shall be no meadows in it; no trees; no gardens; only a little corn grown upon the house tops, reaped and thrashed by steam; that you do not even have room for roads, but travel either over the roofs of your mills, on viaducts; or under their floors, in tunnels; that, the smoke having rendered the light of the sun unserviceable, you work always by the light of your own gas: that no acre of English ground shall be without its shaft and its engine …
—John Ruskin's nightmare vision of the twentieth century The Two Paths (1859)The high-water mark of industrial values
The evolution of ideas, sentiments, and values among the “educated classes” followed a course paralleling that of their social history. A watershed in this course was formed by the Great Exhibition of 1851. Here, under the patronage of Prince Albert, were brought together the latest products of engineering and decorative arts from many nations. Without a doubt the exhibition was a triumph for British enterprise and technology. Most of the medals were awarded to British entries, and the building itself was easily the most impressive feature of the exhibition. Designed by Joseph Paxton (1801–65), an outsider to the architectural profession, it was the first structure to use iron and glass on such a scale, and the first of such size to be made chiefly of prefabricated units.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004