ABSTRACT
In terms of both social structures and social institutions, the post-1870 decades saw largely a continuation of post-1850 trends, sometimes at an accelerated and sometimes at a decelerated pace. Growth of cities and of the proportion of the population living in urban areas continued after 1870 as it had after 1850, but the dramatic acceleration of the post- mid-century decades was gone. The vigorous world of voluntary associations that had developed in Europe in the two decades after 1850 only expanded further in the 1870s and 1880s. In the Austrian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the 8,000 or so voluntary associations existing in 1870 had almost doubled to 15,000 in 1880 and doubled again to 30,000 ten years after that. Similar trends could be found all across Europe. The 1870s and 1880s saw a continuation of previous trends, dating back to the middle of the nineteenth century, or even earlier, towards the expansion of elementary education.
