Imagining the middle class: the political representation of class in Britain, c.1780-1840

Abstract

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.