Imagining the Middle Class

This book explores the origins of the view of modern society that places a 'middle class' at its centre during the Industrial Revolution. It responds to the newly fashionable and rapidly expanding field of middle class studies, while challenging its fundamental assumptions and offering radically new methods and perspectives. 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.