Imagining the Middle Class
The Political Representation of Class in Britain, c.1780–1840

A radically new interpretation of political and social concepts during the Industrial Revolution in Britain.

Dror Wahrman (Author)

9780521477109, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 July 1995

444 pages, 15 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.65 kg

'For all those interested in the question whether class is best seen as a category of social and economic history or as an artefact of political discourse, Imagining the Middle Class is essential - and fascinating - reading.' Gareth Stedman Jones, King's College, Cambridge

Why and how did the British people come to see themselves as living in a society centred around a middle class? The answer provided by Professor Wahrman challenges most prevalent historical narratives: the key to understanding changes in conceptualisations of society, the author argues, lies not in underlying transformations of social structure - in this case industrialisation, which supposedly created and empowered the middle class - but rather in changing political configurations. Firmly grounded in a close reading of an extensive array of sources, and supported by comparative perspectives on France and America, the book offers a nuanced model for the interplay between social reality, politics, and the languages of class.

1. Imagining the 'middle class': an introduction
Part I. Against the Tide: Prelude to the 1790s: was the French Revolution a 'bourgeois revolution'?
2. The uses of 'middle class' language in the 1790s
3. Friends and foes of the 'middle class': the dialogic imagination
4. The political differentiation of social language: the debate on the triple assessment
Postlude to the 1790s: the uses of 'bourgeois revolution'
Part II. The Tug of War: 5. Taming the 'middle class'
6. The tug of war and its resolution
Part III. With the Tide: 7. The social construction of the middle class
8. The parallels across the Channel: a French aside
9. The debates on the Reform Bill: bowing to a new representation of the 'middle class'
10. Inventing the ever-rising 'middle class': the aftermath of 1832
11. 1832 and the 'middle class' conquest of the 'private sphere'
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]