The Making of a Ruling Class
The Glamorgan Gentry 1640–1790

A study of the formation of a new ruling class in the years prior to British industrialisation.

Philip Jenkins (Author)

9780521521949, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 August 2002

380 pages
23 x 15.3 x 2.6 cm, 0.612 kg

This study provides an extensive survey of the economic activities of the gentry, their role as entrepreneurs and as popularisers of the metropolitan culture of Georgian London. It describes how during the eighteenth century, local elites from remote corners of Britain were amalgamated into one new ruling class, a body distinguished by common attitudes, social outlook, living standards and educational patterns. The author provides a synthesis of social, economic and political changes in the years prior to industrialisation. Political changes are studied in detail, and the changing role of political parties and ideologies is examined. Then, after a comprehensive study of the activities and attitudes of the gentry, the book concludes by attempting to explain precisely why Britain should have led the world in the twin processes of industrialisation and modernisation.

List of maps and tables
Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
General introduction
Part I. Social and Economic Structure: Introduction
1. Land and people
2. The gentry
3. Economic development
Conclusion to Part I
Part II. Local and National Politics: Introduction
4. Law and order
5. Political history 1640–1688: the heroic age
6. Political history 1688–1790: the new order
Conclusion to Part II
Part III. Society and Culture: Introduction
7. The idea of a gentleman
8. Education and culture
9. The spread of metropolitan standards
Conclusion to Part III: 'conspicuous antiquity'
Aftermath: towards the Victorian world
Conclusion: from Civil War to Industrial Revolution
Appendices
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]