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Western Civilization 1850-1914 The Second Thesis

For the first time, the opportunity to travel to distant cities by rail allowed even those of modest means to venture more than a few miles from their homes. Likewise, the first underground transportation systems like the New York City

and Boston subway systems connected communities in the greater New York and Boston areas as never before. In fact, the increasing wages and consumer goods attributable to industrialization gave rise to en entirely new concept to the non-wealthy classes for the first time: leisure time and disposable income. To a certain extent, this also disturbed members of the traditional leisure class who, for the first time, had to share beaches and other recreational advantages with the masses of the lower class, which also prompted the former to look for other social outlets, such as the country drive in the new automobiles manufactured by Henry Ford. Toward the end of the...

The application of industrial materials, technologies, and processes to warfare shocked the world in the human carnage that it made possible and revealed a very deadly side of modernization that tempered international enthusiasm significantly.

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From Optimism to Uncertainty:

At the same time, revolutionary ways of thinking challenged political systems and aspects of society and introduced social changes at a rate never before witnessed, mainly by virtue of the new communications and print media and transportation.

Ultimately, the period that began with tremendous optimism unfortunately ended with the outbreak of what was to be called the "war to end all war" in 1914. The application of industrial materials, technologies, and processes to warfare shocked the world in the human carnage that it made possible and revealed a very deadly side of modernization that tempered international enthusiasm significantly.
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