Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface
- 1 Port Development and the Demographic Dynamics of European Urbanization
- 2 Industrialization and Demographic Change: A Case Study of Glasgow, 1801–1914
- 3 The Population Dynamics and Economic Development of Genoa, 1750–1939
- 4 The Components of Demographic Change in a Rapidly Growing Port-City: The Case of Liverpool in the Nineteenth Century
- 5 The Mortality Development of a Port-Town in a National Perspective: The Experience of Malmö, Sweden, 1820–1914
- 6 Population Dynamics and Economic Change in Trieste and its Hinterland, 1850–1914
- 7 The Admiralty Connection: Port Development and Demographic Change in Portsmouth, 1650–1900
- 8 The Port-City Legacy: Urban Demographic Change in the Hansestadt Bremen, 1815–1910
- 9 Changes in Population Development, Urban Structures and Living Conditions in Nineteenth-Century Hamburg
- 10 Demographic Change and Social Structure: The Workers and the Bourgeoisie in Nantes, 1830–1848
- 11 Population, Society and Politics in Cork from the Late-Eighteenth Century to 1900
- Index
10 - Demographic Change and Social Structure: The Workers and the Bourgeoisie in Nantes, 1830–1848
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface
- 1 Port Development and the Demographic Dynamics of European Urbanization
- 2 Industrialization and Demographic Change: A Case Study of Glasgow, 1801–1914
- 3 The Population Dynamics and Economic Development of Genoa, 1750–1939
- 4 The Components of Demographic Change in a Rapidly Growing Port-City: The Case of Liverpool in the Nineteenth Century
- 5 The Mortality Development of a Port-Town in a National Perspective: The Experience of Malmö, Sweden, 1820–1914
- 6 Population Dynamics and Economic Change in Trieste and its Hinterland, 1850–1914
- 7 The Admiralty Connection: Port Development and Demographic Change in Portsmouth, 1650–1900
- 8 The Port-City Legacy: Urban Demographic Change in the Hansestadt Bremen, 1815–1910
- 9 Changes in Population Development, Urban Structures and Living Conditions in Nineteenth-Century Hamburg
- 10 Demographic Change and Social Structure: The Workers and the Bourgeoisie in Nantes, 1830–1848
- 11 Population, Society and Politics in Cork from the Late-Eighteenth Century to 1900
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
During the period of the July Monarchy the French working class was neither sociologically nor ideologically homogeneous (Magraw, 1983, p. 105). Workers in individual towns and specific industries had different grievances. Disparities in conditions led to varying responses and these responses were, in turn, informed by the economic and social histories of those communities. Magraw has pointed to the different political traditions of workers in Marseilles, Toulouse and Paris. Just as there was a geography of working-class politics and protests, likewise there were variations in the response of the middle classes to issues involving les classes inférieurs, les ouvriers, cette classe intéressante or le peuple (Magraw, 1983, p. 92). The most important issues of middle-class concern were the living conditions and morality of the working class, the increase in their numbers and political activity, as well as the effect of migration from the countryside on each of these problems. The response of the middle classes to these issues was set against the background of the development of industrial production in some parts of France, especially in the areas of Paris, Lille, Lyons and Rouen. This was accompanied in places by the emergence of worker organization through the mutual aid societies and in some cases by worker protest, such as that in Lyons (Bezucha, 1974), Limoges (Merriman, 1985) and Paris (Chevalier, 1973), or in smaller towns, such as Carmaux and Lodève, dominated by traditional handicraft industries (Scott, 1974; Johnson, 1992; McPhee, 1992, p. 140). But perhaps the most important backdrop was the development of philosophical thought and social theory which increasingly infused middle-class and working-class beliefs and actions. Important influences were the ideas of Saint Simon, Fourier, Proudhon and Louis Blanc. Informed by a rationalism based on advances in scientific knowledge, society was represented as an organism in which each group had a role to play in maintaining overall harmony. Ideas of the exact nature of each group's role varied and the working classes were cast variously as ignorant and immoral, to be controlled and reformed by the philanthropy of the middle classes, or as the true producers of the nation's wealth and thus entitled to full civil and political rights.
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- Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2002