about the nobility or the peasants, the artisans, or the proletarians. Anyone teaching modem French history or, more generally, nineteenth-century European social history is probably familiar with the lack of references for students who want to know more about the middle classes, which the textbooks tell us were of such crucial importance. As far as France is concerned, Theodore Zeldin drew attention to this remarkable gap in our knowledge in the first volume of his France 1848-1945. His contribution in opening up the subject and stimulating new research has been of major importance, and this is appropriately acknowledged in the foreword to Dream Worlds by R. Williams. Within France, of course, A. Daumard has provided a painstaking and unprecedentedly accurate picture of the income and occupation structure of the Parisian bourgeoisie in particular and more recently has done similar work on a wider, provincial scale. ' There has, however, been a marked swing away from this type of computer-based historical sociology of late. Interest in accumulating data on who owned or earned what is noticeably waning, and a new interest in habits, appearance, and attitudes is apparent. There has been a