7.7 19th-Century Culture

Romanticism reacts against reason

Early 19th-century Romanticism rejected Enlightenment rationalism, emphasizing emotion, nature, and individualism. Writers like Goethe and Wordsworth, painters like Delacroix, and composers like Beethoven celebrated the sublime and the heroic individual. Romantics also fueled nationalism, glorifying folk traditions, national history, and language as expressions of a people's unique spirit.

Realism and science reshape thought

By mid-century, Realism rejected Romantic idealism, portraying everyday life and social problems truthfully — seen in Dickens's novels and Courbet's paintings of peasants and workers. Meanwhile, Darwin's theory of evolution (natural selection) and Social Darwinism challenged religious explanations of life and were misused to justify imperialism, racism, and laissez-faire competition.

New philosophies and the arts fragment

Thinkers like Nietzsche questioned traditional morality and religion, while Freud's psychoanalysis explored the unconscious mind, undermining faith in pure rationality. Late-century art movements like Impressionism (Monet) and later Modernism broke from realistic representation, reflecting growing uncertainty about objective truth and a fragmenting sense of reality before 1900.

Key terms

Romanticism

19th-century movement emphasizing emotion, individualism, nature, and national identity, rejecting Enlightenment rationalism.

Realism

Mid-19th-century movement depicting everyday life and social problems accurately, without idealization.

Social Darwinism

Misapplication of Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' to justify imperialism, racism, and economic competition.

Sigmund Freud

Founder of psychoanalysis; explored the unconscious mind, challenging belief in purely rational human behavior.

Impressionism

Late 19th-century art movement (e.g., Monet) capturing fleeting light and perception rather than precise detail, breaking from Realism.

Try an AP-style question

Romantic artists like Delacroix emphasized…

1. strict classical order
2. industrial themes only
3. emotion, drama, and nationalism
4. scientific precision