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ABSTRACT the Evolution of Environmentalism in British ABSTRACT The Evolution of Environmentalism in British Victorian Society Elaine Renberg Director: Lynne Hinojosa, Ph.D. The Industrial Revolution remains ingrained as one of the most transformational periods in Great Britain's history. As industry continued to grow through the later half of the 1860s, however, a quieter revolution began in the wake of the Industrial Revolution’s destruction, springing up in the corners of society and gaining traction through the turn of the century. My thesis examines the changes in Victorian society’s perception of the natural environment and its relationship to urban life, as reflected in the environmental conversation between novels, periodicals, and other texts. Through explorations of the depiction of the Victorian environment, I identify a growing sense of environmentalism in the Victorian age as reflected in negative framings of the deteriorating city, attention to positive effects of the environment on human life, and action taken to preserve and implement natural spaces in cities. These explorations elucidate the true interdisciplinary nature of environmentalism and its formation as well as illuminate a clean city environment as a social justice issue. APPROVED BY DIRECTOR OF HONORS THESIS: Dr. Lynne Hinojosa, Great Texts Department APPROVED BY THE HONORS PROGRAM: Dr. Elizabeth Corey, Director DATE: THE EVOLUTION OF ENVIRONMENTALISM IN BRITISH VICTORIAN SOCIETY A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Baylor University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Honors Program By Elaine Renberg Waco, Texas May 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction to Victorian Environmental Consciousness and Conscience 1 Chapter Two: The Presence of Environmentalism in the Victorian Era . 11 Chapter Three: Victorian Society’s Early Environmental Action: Movements, Organizations, and the Garden City . 29 Chapter Four: The Rise of Environmental Planning and Policy . 48 Bibliography . 66 ii CHAPTER ONE Introduction to Victorian Environmental Consciousness and Conscience The Industrial Revolution remains ingrained as one of the most transformational periods in Great Britain's history, exemplifying the boom of innovation, trade, and business. While the rapid expansion of factories stood as lucrative business opportunities for investors and production giants, they quickly created a broad atmosphere of entrapment, from smoke shrouding the sun and stars to the physical captivity of cramped living spaces built hastily for the influx of workers from the countryside. As industry continued to grow through the later half of the 1860s, however, a quiet revolution stirred in the wake of the Industrial Revolution’s destruction, springing up in the corners of society and gaining traction through the turn of the century. This revolution was the budding of Victorian environmentalism and a societal environmental conscience involving the recognition of, conversation about, and eventual actualization of cultural value for natural spaces. Holistically, “environmental consciousness” can be defined as “the awareness of our relationship to the environment and the exchanges between human and nonhuman…suggesting an ethical perception of humanity’s intermingling with the environment,” where a desire for present profit and maximization eventually grows into an awareness of the persistence of habits and the sharing of nature from generation to generation (Kennedy 2). This “consciousness” eventually leads to a Vicorian environmental “conscience,” taking awareness a step further in action and morals. In context of this thesis, an “environmental conscience” is the association of environmental efforts with a moral rightness in caring for 1 other people. This conscience stands evident in Victorian culture’s subtle shift from glorification of the new and industrial to a yearning to re-introduce the freedom and enjoyment of nature into quotidian life, specifically in the reintegration of natural environmental principles into urban settings. John Ruskin, a prominent social voice in the realms of art, education, and city life, embodied the precepts of this movement towards the environment in his understanding that all situations are an opportunity to care for art, nature, and future generations. In his work, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Ruskin outlines the relationship between present stewardship and care for the future indicative of an environmental conscience stating: The idea of self-denial for the sake of posterity, of practicing present economy for the sake of debtors yet unborn, of planting forests that our descendants may live under their shade…never I suppose, efficiently takes place among publicly recognized motives of exertion. Yet these are not the less our duties; nor is our part fitly sustained upon the earth, unless the range of our intended and deliberate usefulness include, not only the companions but the successors of our pilgrimage. God has lent us the earth for our life; it is a great entail. It belongs as much to those who are to come after us … as to us; we have no right, by anything that we do or neglect, to involve them in unnecessary penalties, or deprive them of benefits which it was in our power to bequeath (154). Beyond reactions to the depravity caused by the Industrial Revolution, additional characteristics of Victorian society in the late 1800s and early 1900s created space for the development of an environmental conscience. To begin, the growth of periodical and novel culture spread new ideas, and commentary on these new ideas, in a way that delivered diverse perspectives to a variety of audiences. This expansion of the availability and access to the sharing of thoughts and ideas through literature lead to a more comprehensive societal dialogue, forming a platform for discussions of art, novels, social issues, science, and a variety of topics that intersect and interact. Discussions of natural spaces and the role of the environment soon became another subject in the broader 2 conversations attempting to explicate and define the constructs and intricacies of society, allowing the environment to gain traction alongside the landscape of Victorian life. My thesis examines the changes in Victorian society’s perception of the natural environment and its relationship to urban life, as reflected in the environmental conversation between novels, periodicals, and other texts. Through explorations of the depiction of the Victorian environment, I identify a growing sense of environmentalism in the Victorian age as reflected in negative framings of the deteriorating city, attention to positive effects of the environment on human life, and action taken to preserve and implement natural spaces in cities. These explorations elucidate the true interdisciplinary nature of environmentalism and its formation. In the environmental conscience’s direct connection to human life and actualization to further human well being, it becomes evident that a clean city environment is an issue of social justice. The undertones of social justice prevail in both private and public spaces and in discussions of the environment. The action taken in accordance with discovered environmental values reveals an inevitable intersection where caring for nature leads to true compassion (sensitivity, humanity, charity, care) for others. Hence, environmentalism’s twofold character ultimately indicates a compassionate society, where actualization of environmental values equates to tangible care for present and future generations. Literature Review The complete connection between Victorian conversation about the environment to action concerning city planning and legislation remains difficult to identify in modern scholarship. Regarding the natural environment, literary scholarship concentrates on the 3 presence of natural images in Romantic poetry and novels, predominantly through the practice and development of ecocritical practices in the 1970s. Ecocriticism stands as an evolving concept, however, and particular imaging in ecocriticism continues to develop in the field of study (Mazzeno and Morrison 1). Instead of building comprehensive connections between texts about nature and how they affect society, scholars choose to focus on the development of ecocriticism as an isolated, textual practice over actual application in Victorian society. Ecocriticism might study the growth of environmentalism as a result of transcendental philosophy in the 1820s and 1830s or as supported in the Romantic era, but such work leaves a direct gap in examining environmental conversation and texts as Victorians would notice it (within Victorian contexts).1 Romantic authors were “particularly adept at recreating in the work the kinds of environments being challenged by industrial capitalism,” leading authors to focus on the environmental movements in the Lake District, specifically centered around William Wordsworth and his literary network (Mazzeno and Morrison 3). In this sense, ecocriticism does elucidate the power of the Romantic era in framing environmental 1 For examples of Transcendental ecocriticism see: Jones, Alfred. “Walden: Thoreau’s Eco-Centric Pastoral.” The Image of the Road in Literature, Media, and Society II. UP of Colorado (2012): 213–221.Newman, Lance. Our Common Dwelling: Henry Thoreau, Transcendentalism, and the Class Politics of Nature. 2005. Newman, Lance. “Thoreau’s Materialism and Environmental Justice.” Thoreau at Two Hundred: Essays and Reassessments. Cambridge UP (2016): 17–30. Nichols, Ashton. “Thoreau and Urbanature: From Walden
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