Western Civilization II / Unit 12 WC2 1101 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Victorianism: Security, Shame, and Virtue Tied to Wealth
Captions available
The idea
Victorianism, named for Victoria's reign from eighteen thirty-seven to nineteen oh-one, was the culture of the dominant bourgeoisie: top hats, covering dresses, rigid gender norms. Its defining wish was security from the lower classes. Morality was secularized into economics: wealth proved character.
In practice
A hat told your income, the anchor says.
Where people slip
The anchor's reading of Victorian hypocrisy is attributed.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Unlocks
- 1102Fear of the Working Class, Degeneration, and the Beast Beneath: Dracula and Jekyll
- 1103Separate Spheres: Men and Women as Opposites
- 1104Sewers, Anesthesia, and the Cult of Cleanliness
- 1111Freud and the Unconscious: Thought at the Century's Turn
- 1112Mass Literacy, Ferry's Schools, Cheap Paper, and Yellow Journalism That Made Politics
- 1116Realism and Impressionism
- 1128Confidence and Fear: What Mass Society Believed About Itself
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