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| 150
YEARS OF PHOTO JOURNALISM |
INTRODUCTION Life was a lottery in the mid-19th century. Whether rich or poor, mother and baby both needed luck to survive the perils of childbirth. Infant morality rates were terrifyingly high, and cholera, typhus, diphtheria and a dozen other disease were in constant brooding attendance. Of those who did survive into infancy, childhood and adulthood, the rich lived longer, ate better, had more to enjoy. The poor struggled to exist in bad housing, worked exhausting hours, ailed and died, often in thirties and forties. The average expectation of life in the industrial world varied from country to country as well as from class to class. In the slums and sweatshops it could be as low as thirty-five; in villas and offices it could be as high as sixty. For white men and women in the ever-extending colonies it could be little more than forty. Death seemed always near at hand and people fervently prayed for a longer, as well as a better, life hereafter. But if you won the lottery, what a time it was to be alive! Those born in 1850 who were granted their threescore years and ten witnessed a transformation of life on earth hitherto unknown. They entered a world where most people travelled only as fast as a horse could carry them - though steam locomotives were already rattling along at 45 miles an hour (72kph), shocking Queen Victoria, but delighting many. To sail to another land meant a voyage of considerable discomfort, often prolonged by the vagaries of the wind. Most people still lived, worked and died on the land. Anaesthetics were unknown. Family planning was unheard of. Open sewers ran along the centres of even the most fashionables streets in the smartest cities. There was no electricity, and gas, as fuel for light or heat, was still something of a novelty. In Europe there was a sprinkling of insecure republics, but in most countries, king or emperor sat firmly on his throne and all was, on the face of it, right with the world. The indigenous North Americans hunted buffalo on the central plains; the interiors of Africa, Australia and South America were unknown to white people; Japan and China were closed communities. The old order prevailed. Dukes and princes, bishops and cardinals hunted for sport and oppressed for a living. To tha vast majority, the deliberations of central government were of far less concern than the whims of the local lord. If you were a poor male and wanted to travel, you joined the army. If were a poor female and wanted to travel, you couldn't. [..] |
CONTENTS PART I 1850-1918 INTRODUCTION STREET LIFE INDUSTRY HOME AND TRANSPORT SPORT ENTERTAINMENT ARTS EMPIRE PEOPLES AVIATION AND RAILWAYS SCIENCE AND TRANSPORT SOCIAL UNREST CONFLICT WORLD WAR I RUSSIAN REVOLUTION CONSTRUCTION NEW FRONTIERS PART II 1918 TO THE PRESENT INTRODUCTION ASPECTS OF THE 1920s AND 1930s THE RISE OF FASCISM NAZISM WAR IN EUROPE: THE BLITZ POSTWAR FASHION CINEMA THE CHANGING ROLE OF WOMEN MUSIC AND DANCE THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES AVIATION AND SPACE WORLD EVENTS CIVIL PROTEST DISASTERS SPORT INDEX PHOTO CREDITS |
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