Social Anxieties
Social Anxieties are another tool students of history use in order to analyze a particular group. It is a very high level of analyzing. It involves the deep analysis of primary sources with a solid background of historical content and detail. Only with practice can a student effectively use this strategy.
| Frankenstein by Mary Shelley | Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, a romantic novel, at a time when the world was amid the turmoil of change and progress. Frankenstein reflects fear of the scientific revolution and symbolizes many aspects of the revolutionary spirit of the era. It is a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and the fears of technology taking over. |
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| Dracula by Bram Stoker | Bram Stoker’s now legendary novel, Dracula, is not just any piece of cult-spawning fiction, but rather a time capsule containing the popular thoughts, ideas, and beliefs of the Victorian era that paints an elaborate picture of what society was like for Bram Stoker’s generation. The dated ideas reflected in Dracula focus primarily on the concepts of lust, sex, and evil as they were viewed during the late 19th and 20th century in what can be viewed as a strongly conservative society. |
| Communist Manifesto & Das Kapital by Karl Marx | Marxism and socialism are part of the consequences of the Industrial Revolution. Despite the deep suspicion toward socialism and especially Marxism in this country, Marxism was very much the product of mainstream Western intellectual tradition, combining classical German philosophy with an optimism toward the benefits of science and technology brought about by the Industrial Revolution. The radical aspects of Marxism, e.g. his championing of class struggles and violent revolutions, were Marx's interpretation of history and his prediction of what was to come based on the often violent confrontations between workers and management. Finally, precisely because Marxism provided so much threat to European countries, their governments eventually conceded to workers' demands at least partially to avoid further violent confrontations and the prospect of losing out to the socialists/Marxists. |