What was the impact of urban growth on cities, social classes, families, and ideas?

After 1850, as identification with the nation-state was becoming a basic organizing principle in Europe, urban growth rushed forward with undiminished force. By 1900 western Europe was urban and industrial as surely as it had been rural and agrarian in 1800. Rapid urban growth in the nineteenth century worsened long-standing overcrowding and unhealthy living conditions, lending support to voices calling for revolutionary change. To prevent unrest and promote a strong, healthy population capable of competing with other nations, government leaders, city planners, reformers, and scientists urgently sought solutions to these challenges. Over the long term, success in improving the urban environment and the introduction of social welfare measures encouraged people to put their faith in a responsive national state.