1800 change in human nature

Now only if we could have a change in the nature of the human at 1600 (rimshot)

But in seriousness, here's a new article from the NYT Science section on the emerging industrial culture of the 19th century. One of his keys is the counterintuitive concept of "downward social mobility":

Generation after generation, the rich had more surviving children than the poor, his research showed. That meant there must have been constant downward social mobility as the poor failed to reproduce themselves and the progeny of the rich took over their occupations. “The modern population of the English is largely descended from the economic upper classes of the Middle Ages,” he concluded.

As the progeny of the rich pervaded all levels of society, Dr. Clark considered, the behaviors that made for wealth could have spread with them. He has documented that several aspects of what might now be called middle-class values changed significantly from the days of hunter gatherer societies to 1800. Work hours increased, literacy and numeracy rose, and the level of interpersonal violence dropped.

He has a lot about genetics that may take things a little too far. Doesn't seem like these values have to be encoded in genes for them to have the same effect. (And besides, evolution can't operate in that short a time period.) But it's an interesting thesis when read on the cultural / institutional level.