Author:
Anna McCollum, Neil Greenwood, Alison Vick, Madonna Kemp, David Toye, Nathan Widener
Subject:
World History
Material Type:
Textbook
Level:
High School, Community College / Lower Division
Tags:
License:
Creative Commons Attribution
Language:
English

Growth of the Middle Class

Growth of the Middle Class

Overview

Growth of the Middle Class with Industrialization

Title Image description - Schubertiade in a middle-class Viennese household, heliogravure after a painting by Julius Schmid, 2nd half of 19th century

 

During the Industrial Revolution, not everyone lived in poor conditions and struggled with the challenges of rapid industrialization. The Industrial Revolution also gave rise to a new middle class of industrialists and professionals who lived in much better conditions than they had before. In fact, one of the earlier definitions of the middle class equated it to the original meaning of capitalist: someone with so much capital that they could rival nobles. To be a capital-owning millionaire was an important criterion of the middle class during the Industrial Revolution. Additionally, the period witnessed a growth in professionals, including lawyers, doctors, small business owners, and government officials; these professionals did not share the fate of the early industrial working class and enjoyed a comfortable standard of living in growing cities.

 

Learning Objectives

  • Analyze the human and environmental consequences of Industrialization and the factory system in England.
  • Compare the lives of factory owners and workers in England during Industrialization. 

 

This new industrial middle class also was defined by its members’ limited access to the new consumer goods made possible through mass production. In this respect these new consumer goods gave rise to the new materialistic aspirations; the satisfaction of which determined one’s place in the new industrial class hierarchy. These new consumer goods were the core of a new consumer culture. Other components of this new consumer culture included department stores, mail order catalogs, and world fairs, where such consumer goods could be displayed. Department stores, such as Le Bon Marche which opened in Paris in 1852, allowed shoppers to actively shop with the store serving as a huge display case. This model of shopping replaced the old model in which shopkeepers controlled the process of shopping. Mail order catalogs allowed consumers to shop by mail, using railroads to transport their purchases. World fairs, the first of which took place in London in 1851, known as the Crystal Palace Exhibition, provided huge showcases of new products and inventions to titillate the new desires of shoppers.

Both a new working and upper class emerged with industrialization. These new working, middle, and upper classes were continuations of the preindustrial working, middle, and upper classes, but evolved with the changes of industrialization. Through the changes of industrialization the new incarnations of these classes distinguished themselves in the same sorts of ways that they had distinguished themselves before the Industrial Revolution, including dress, housing, associations, recreational pursuits, and conspicuous spending, among other visible signs of class status. Even more than before the Industrial Revolution such visible manifestations of class status reflected the accomplishments of one within her or his class. These manifestations were part of the new quantification that took hold with industrialization.

Relations among members of all three new classes changed accordingly. As part of these changing relationships members of the new industrial middle class sought to close the distance between themselves and the new industrial upper class, while increasing the distance from the new industrial working class. These efforts by the middle classes to distance themselves from the working class, along with other developments, inspired the establishment of political parties and other kinds of organizations that were designed to empower them politically. These new parties were part of the larger trend of political democratization that grew out of the Industrial Revolution.

Attributions

Images courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

Title Image -  Au Bon Marche, opened in Paris in 1887.  Attribution: Unknown authorUnknown author, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Provided by: Wikipedia. Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Au_Bon_March%C3%A9_(vue_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale_-_gravure).jpg. LicenseCreative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

 

Boundless World History

"Social Change"

Adapted from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/social-change/

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