Oral d'anglais : l'idée de progrès. Pourriez-vous m'aider pour construire un plan ? J'ai fait celui-là : I. Idea of progress in the XVIIIth century II. The prog

Je pense qu'il faudrait plutôt construire ton plan selon les différentes notions qu'implique l'idée de progrès. Le progrès n'est pas seulement technologique ou technique, il est aussi social par exemple, et c'est donc sous plusieurs angles qu'il a transformé la société anglo-saxonne. Je te propose le plan suivant.

Mankind has always sought for continuous improvements. Thus we may assume that progress can be the motor force of History and the motive of societies. However, although progress aims at helping us to enhance our daily life, it may change our perception of life and our behavior. Hence we can ask the following question: in what ways the idea of progress transformed the Anglo-Saxon society? 

 I.  The Great Scientific and Technical Inventions  

1) Progress as hegemony
- The printed world: William Caxton and the printing press in the UK. The first book to be printed in English was Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye (1473).
- The Machine Age: how the industrial revolution triggered the success of the  the UK in the XVIIIth century (Watt: steam machine, Crompton and the spinning mule)
- Communication & Inventions: W. Morse (Morse Code), Edison (telegraph), Bell (telephone); the Internet and the Computer era
- The Mass Production era : the Fordism and Taylorism (= scientific management) in the XXth century in the US
- the Space Age: the US vs URSS. Space conquest as struggle for hegemony  

2) Medical and scientific progress
- James Lind cured the scurvy (le scorbut): improvement for the Royal Navy
- Edward Jenner: the pionner of smallpox vaccine (vaccin contre la variole)
- Charles Darwin: the Darwinism as a new theory of biological evolution by natural selection
- F. G. Hopkins: researches about vitamins
- Fleming: inventor of penicillin antibiotics to cure many diseases such as syphilis
- Dr Drew: creator of blood banks  

II. The progress to balance opposing forces  

1) Balance between individual and the State
- Habeas Corpus (also known as great writ): Puritans demanded a reform of English Church
- American Revolution
- The New Deal introduced by Roosevelt after the 1929’s crisis
- The Welfare State in the UK after WWII  

2) Balance between opposing social classes
- Progress for the status of women: right to vote (the Suffragettes), right to work, contraception and abortion
- Redefinition of the role of women in the society
- Rights for Homosexuals 

 3) Progress for Black people
 - Booker T. Washington challenged Jim Crow segregation
- Marthin Luther King and the March on Washington (1963)
- Barack Obama