Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T14:10:33.410Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

La Bourgeoisie Britannique au 19e siècle. recherches, approches, problématiques

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2017

Geoffrey Crossick
Geoffrey Crossick*
Affiliation:
Université d'Essex
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Malgré le manque d'intérêt dont elle a été l'objet durant des décennies, l'histoire sociale de la bourgeoisie est devenue, au cours de ces dernières années, un thème majeur de l'historiographie britannique1. le retard pris explique l'attention récente, partielle, et par certains côtés caractéristique, des historiens britanniques pour ce thème qu'ils avaient longtemps dédaigné ou considéré comme un problème dont les grandes lignes étaient trop connues pour justifier une recherche approfondie. Dans toute l'Europe les historiens pourraient, certes, soutenir que les classes moyennes ou la bourgeoisie ont été relativement négligées dans leur propre pays et ce serait, dans une certaine mesure, exact. L'histoire sociale s'est partout développée en priorité autour de questions qui concernaient les groupes dominés de la société et, pour les générations d'historiens de l'après-guerre, la bourgeoisie était perçue comme un thème peu attrayant.

Summary

Summary

The social history of the middle class in nineteenth-century Britain has in recent years become a prominent theme in British analysis, in spite of decades of neglect. This article is a critical survey of the main themes which have dominated work in this field in the last fifteen years, focusing especially on the questions and approaches which distinguish research and analysis in Britain within a broader European framework. After a discussion of the way social history developed in Britain, which provides an essential context in which to understand its neglect of the middle class, the article is organised around a set of themes: words, classes and the discovery of the eighteenth century; an activity-based approach to class formation; the integrative power of voluntary action; cultural forces for cohesion and division; the petite bourgeoisie's struggle for attention; and, finally, landowners, bourgeois and the changing problematic.

The relatively late development of the middle class as a subject for research in Britain means that it has grown at the very time when social structural history has fallen into disfavour, and when questions of representations and discourse have corne lo dominate the British social history agenda. Concern for the formation or appearance of the middle class in the first half of the nineteenth century has given way to questions of culture and élite relationships in the second. The distinctiveness of the British approach can be traced to the concerns of the national culture, to the nature of the sources for the analysis of the bourgeoisie, and to the distinctive character of the historical process itself.

Type
La Bourgeoisie Britannique au 19e Siècle
Information
Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales , Volume 53 , Issue 6 , December 1998 , pp. 1089 - 1130
Copyright
Copyright © Les Éditions de l’EHESS 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibliographie

Sauf en cas de mention contraire, le lieu de publication des ouvrages est Londres.Google Scholar
Barry, J., « Identité urbaine et classes moyennes dans l'Angleterre moderne », Annales ESC,1993, n° 4, pp. 853–883.Google Scholar
Barry, J., « The Making of the Middle Class ? », Past and Present , 145, 1994, pp. 194– 208.Google Scholar
Barry, J., Brooks, C. (éds), The Middling Sort of People. Culture, Society and Politics in England, 1550-1800 ,Londres, 1994.Google Scholar
Behagg, C , « Masters and Manufacturers: Social Values and the Smaller Unit of Production in Birmingham, 1800-1850 », dans G. Crossick et H. G. Haupt, 1984.Google Scholar
Behagg, C., Politics and Production in the Early Nineteenth Century ,Londres, 1990.Google Scholar
Berghoff, H., « Public Schools and the Décline of the British Economy, 1870-1914 », Past and Present , 1990, 129, pp. 148–167.Google Scholar
Berghoff, H., «British Businessmen as Wealth Holders, 1870-1914: A Closer Look», Business History,1991, 33, pp. 222–240.Google Scholar
Berghoff, H., « A Gentrified Bourgeoisie ? On the Social History of Ennobled Businessmen in Prussia and Britain, 1870-1918 », German Yearbook on Business History, 1995 , 1995, pp. 9–35.Google Scholar
Berghoff, H., Môller, R., « Tired Pioneers and Dynamic Newcomers ? A Comparative Essay on English and German Entrepreneurial History, 1870-1914 », Economie History Review ,1994, XLVII, pp. 262–287.Google Scholar
Borsay, P., The English Urban Renaissance: Culture and Society in the Provincial Town 1660-1770 ,Oxford, 1989.Google Scholar
Briggs, A., « The Background of the English Parliamentary Reform Movement in Three English Cities », Cambridge Historical Journal ,1950-1952, x, pp. 293–317.Google Scholar
Briggs, A., « Middle-Class Consciousness in English Politics, 1780-1846 », Past and Present 1956, 9, pp. 65–74.Google Scholar
Brown, J. E., Business and the Education of a Gentleman in Late Victorian England, Stanford University Ph.D., 1966.Google Scholar
Gain, P. J., Hopkins, A. G., « Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Overseas Expansion, I, The Old Colonial System, 1688-1850 », Economie History Review ,1986, xxxix, pp. 501– 525.Google Scholar
Cain, P. J., Hopkins, A. G., « Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Overseas Expansion, II, New Imperialism, 1850-1945 », Economie History Review ,1987, XL, pp. 1–26.Google Scholar
Cain, P. J., Hopkins, A. G., British Imperialism , Londres, 1993, 2 vols.Google Scholar
D., Cannadine, « The Empire Strikes Back », Past and Present , 1995, 147, pp. 180–194.Google Scholar
Cassis, Y., Les banquiers de la City à l'époque édouardienne, 1890-1914 ,Genève, 1984.Google Scholar
Cassis, Y., « Bankers in English Society in the Late Nineteenth Century », Economie History Review,2nd Séries, 1985, XXXVIII, pp. 210–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corfield, P. J., « Class by Name and Number in Eighteenth-Century Britain », dans Corfield, P. J. (éd.), Language, History and Class , Oxford, 1991.Google Scholar
P. J., Corfield, « Concepts of the Urban Middle Class in Theory and Practice: England, 1750-1850 », Meier, B., Schult, H. (éds), Die Wiederkehr des Stadtbùrgers. Stàdtereformen im europàischen Vergleich, 1750 bis 1850 , Berlin, 1994.Google Scholar
Corfield, P. J., Power and the Professions in Britain, 1700-1850 , Londres, 1995.Google Scholar
Crossick, G. (éd.), The Lower Middle Class in Britain, 1870-1914 , Londres, 1976.Google Scholar
Crossick, G., « The Petite Bourgeoisie in Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Urban and Libéral Case », dans Crossick, G., Haupt, H. G. (1984), 1984a, pp. 62–94.Google Scholar
Crossick, G., « Shopkeepers and the State in Britain, 1870-1914 », dans Crossick, G., Haupt, H. G. (1984), 1984b, pp. 239–269.Google Scholar
Crossick, G., « From Gentlemen to the Residuum: Languages of Social Description in Victorian Britain », dans P. J. Corfield (éd.), Language, History and Class ,Oxford, 1991, pp. 150–178.Google Scholar
Crossick, G., « Metaphors of the Middle: the Discovery of the petite bourgeoisie, 1880- 1914 », Transactions of the Royal Historical Society ,6th séries, 1994, 4, pp. 251–279.Google Scholar
Crossick, G., « Formation ou invention des classes moyennes ? Une analyse comparée : Belgique-France-Grande-Bretagne, 1880-1914 », Revue belge d'Histoire contemporaine 1996, 26, pp. 105–138.Google Scholar
Crossick, G., Haupt, H. G. (éds), Shopkeepers and Master Artisans in Nineteenth-Century Europe , Londres, 1984.Google Scholar
Crossick, G., Haupt, H. G., The Petite Bourgeoisie in Europe, 1780-1914: Enterprise Family and Independence , Londres, 1995.Google Scholar
Daunton, M. J., « “ Gentlemanly Capitalism ” and British Industry, 1820-1914 », Past and Present , 1989, 122, pp. 119–158.Google Scholar
Davidoff, L., Hall, C, « The Architecture of Public and Private Life. English Middle- Class Society in a Provincial Town 1780 to 1850 », dans Fraser, D., Sutcliffe, A. (éds), The Pursuit of Urban History , Londres, 1983, pp. 327–345.Google Scholar
Davidoff, L., Hall, C, Family Fortunes. Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850 ,Londres, 1987.Google Scholar
Duman, D., The Judicial Bench in England, 1727-1875: The Reshaping of a Professional Elite ,Londres, 1982.Google Scholar
Earle, P., The Making of the English Middle Class: Business, Society and Family Life in London, 1660-1730 , Londres, 1989.Google Scholar
Field, J., « Wealth, Styles of Life and Social Tone amongst Portsmouth's Middle Class, 1800-1875», dans Morris, R. J. (éd.), Class, Power and Social Structure in British Nineteenth-Century Towns , Leicester, 1986, pp. 67–106.Google Scholar
Fraser, D., Urban Politics in Victorian England , Londres, 1996.Google Scholar
Garrard, J., Leadership and Power in Victorian Industrial Towns, 1830-1880, Manchester, 1996.Google Scholar
Gatrell, V. A. C , « Incorporation and the Pursuit of Libéral Hegemony in Manchester 1790-1839 », dans Fraser, D. (éd.), Municipal Reform and the Industrial City, Leicester, 1982, pp. 15–60.Google Scholar
Girouard, M., The Victorian Country House, Oxford, 1971.Google Scholar
Gunn, S., « The “ Failure ” of the Victorian Middle Class: A Critique », dans Wolff, J., Seed, J., 1988, pp. 17–43. Google Scholar
Gunn, S., « The Ministry, the Middle Class, and the “ Civilizing Mission ” in Manchester, 1850-1880 », Social History, 1996, 21, pp. 22–36. Google Scholar
Harris, J., Thane, P., « British and European Bankers, 1880-1914: An Aristocratie Bourgeoisie ? », dans Thane, P., Crossick, G., Floud, R. (éds), The Power of the Past. Essays for Eric Hobsbawm, Londres, 1984, pp. 215–234. Google Scholar
Hennock, P., Fit and Proper Persons. Idéal and Reality in Nineteenth-Century Urban Government, Londres, 1973.Google Scholar
Higgs, E., « Domestic Servants and Households in Victorian England », Social History 1983, 8, pp. 201–210.Google Scholar
Hills, P., « Division and Cohésion in the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class: The Case of Ipswich, 1830-1870», Urban History Yearbook, 1987, 1987, pp. 42–50.Google Scholar
Hosgood, C, « The “ Pigmies of Commerce ” and the Working-Class Community: Small Shopkeepers in England, 1870-1914 », Journal of Social History, 1989, 33, pp. 439–460.Google Scholar
Hosgood, C, « A “ Brave and Daring Folk ” ? Shopkeepers and Trade Associational Life in Victorian and Edwardian England », Journal of Social History, 1992, 36, pp. 285–308.Google Scholar
Howe, A., The Cotton Masters, 1830-1860, Oxford, 1984.Google Scholar
Joyce, P., Work, Society and Politics. The Culture ofthe Factory in Later Victorian England Brighton, 1980.Google Scholar
Kidd, A. J., Roberts, K. W. (éds), City, Class and Culture. Studies of Cultural Production and Social Policy in Victorian Manchester, Manchester, 1995.Google Scholar
Koditschek, T., Class Formation and Urban-lndustrial Society. Bradford, 1750-1850 Cambridge, 1990.Google Scholar
Langford, P, A Polite and Commercial People: England, 1727-1783, Oxford, 1989.Google Scholar
Moore, D. C , The Politics of Déférence, Hassocks, 1976.Google Scholar
Morris, R. J., « The Middle Class and the Property Cycle during the Industrial Révolution », dans Smout, T. C. (éd.), The Search for Wealth and Stability,1979, pp. 91–113.Google Scholar
Morris, R. J., « The Middle Class and British Towns and Cities ofthe Industrial Révolution, 1780-1870 », dans Fraser, D., Sutcliffe, A. (éds), The Pursuit of Urban History, Londres, 1983, pp. 286–306.Google Scholar
Morris, R. J., « Voluntary Societies and British Urban Elites, 1780-1850: An Analysis », Historical Journal, 1983a, 26, pp. 95–118.Google Scholar
Morris, R. J., Class, Sect and Party. The Making ofthe British Middle Class: Leeds, 1820- 50, Manchester, 1990.Google Scholar
Nenadic, S., The Structure, Values and Influence of the Scottish Urban Middle Class: Glasgow, 1800 to 1870, University of Glasgow, Ph.D., 1986.Google Scholar
Nenadic, S., « Businessmen, the Urban Middle Classes, and the “ Dominance ” of Manufacturées in Nineteenth-Century Britain », Economie History Review, 1991, XLIV, pp. 66– 85.Google Scholar
Nenadic, S., « Middle-Rank Consumers and Domestic Culture in Edinburgh and Glasgow 1720-1840 », Past and Present, 1994, 145, pp. 122–156.Google Scholar
Perkin, H., The Rise of Professional Society. England since 1880, Londres, 1989.Google Scholar
Peterson, M. J., The Médical Profession in Mid-Victorian London,Londres, 1978.Google Scholar
Prochaska, F., Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England, Oxford, 1980.Google Scholar
Rappaport, E., Shopping for Pleasure: Gender, Commerce, and Public Life in London's West End, 1860-1914, Princeton, à paraître, 1999.Google Scholar
Rappaport, E., « “ The Halls of Temptation ”: Gender, Politics, and the Construction of the Department Store in Late Victorian London », Journal of British Studies, 1996, 35, pp. 58–83.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, W. D., « Wealth, Elites and the Class Structure of Modem Britain», Past and Present, 1977, 76, pp. 99–126.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, W. D., « The Victorian Middle Classes: Wealth, Occupation and Geography ». Economie History Review,2nd Séries, 1977a, xxx, pp. 602–623.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, W. D., « New Men of Wealth and the Purchase of Land in Nineteenth-Century Britain », Past and Present, 1981, 92, pp. 125–147.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, W. D., Men of Property. The Very Wealthy in Britain since the Industrial Révolution, Londres, 1981a.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, W. D., « Cutting up Rich: A Reply to F. M. L. Thompson », Economie History Review, 1992, XLV, pp. 350–361.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, W. D., Capitalism, Culture and Décline in Britain, 1750-1990, Londres, 1993.Google Scholar
Schwartz, L. D., « Social Class and Social Geography: The Middle Classes in London at the end of the Eighteenth Century », Social History, 1982, 7, pp. 167–185.Google Scholar
Seed, J., « Unitarianism, Political Economy and the Antinomies of Libéral Culture in Manchester, 1830-1850 », Social History, 1982, 7, pp. 1–25.Google Scholar
Seed, J., « Théologies of Power: Unitarians and the Social Relations of Religious Discourse, 1800-1850», dans MORRIS, R. J. (éd.), Class, Power and Social Structure in British Nineteenth-Century Towns, Leicester, 1986, pp. 107–156.Google Scholar
Seed, J., « From “ Middling Sort ” to Middle Class in Late Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth- Century England », dans Bush, M. L. (éd.), Social Orders and Social Classes in Europe since 1500: Studies in Social Stratification,1992.Google Scholar
Smail, J., The Origins of Middle-Class Culture. Halifax, Yorkshire, 1660-1780,Ithaca- Londres, 1994.Google Scholar
Thompson, F. M. L., « Life After Death: How Successful Nineteenth-Century Businessmen Disposed of their Fortunes », Economie History Review, 1990, XLIII, pp. 40–61.Google Scholar
Thompson, F. M. L. « Stitching it Together Again », Economie History Review, XLV, pp. 362– 375. Voir la discussion dans Rubinstein, W. D. (1992) et Thompson, F. M. L. (1992).Google Scholar
Thompson, J., «After the Fall. Class and Political Language in Britain, 1780-1900», Historical Journal,1996, 39, pp. 785–806.Google Scholar
Trainor, R., « Urban Elites in Victorian Britain », Urban History Yearbook, 1985,1985.Google Scholar
Trainor, R., Black Country Elites. The Exercise of Authority in an Industrialized Area 1830-1900,Oxford, 1993.Google Scholar
Vickery, A., « Golden Age to Separate Sphères ? A Review of the Catégories and Chronology of English Women's History », Historical Journal,1993, 36, pp. 383–414.Google Scholar
Wahrman, D., « Virtual RePresentation: Parliamentary Reporting and Languages of Class in the 1790s », Past and Present,1992, 136, pp. 83–113.Google Scholar
Wahrman, D., Imagining the Middle Class. The Political RePresentation of Class in Britain c. 1780-1840, Cambridge, 1995.Google Scholar
Wiener, M. J., English Culture and the Décline of the Industrial Spirit, 1850-1980, Cambridge, 1981.Google Scholar
Winstanley, M. J., The Shopkeeper's World, 1830-1914, Manchester, 1983.Google Scholar
Wolff, J., Seed, J. (éds), The Culture of Capital: Art, Power and the Nineteenth-Century Middle Class, Manchester, 1988.Google Scholar