Social Class Dbq

Vitality in England during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was not strictly determined by food, clean water, or a good paying job, but rather by the all-encompassing idea of social class. Being in a highly regarded social class provided better access to life’s necessities and frills. A business owner could afford more bread and appliances than a factory worker could, and an official in Parliament would most likely have more maids and land than a business owner. However, transitioning to a higher class was not the only way to improve someone’s social status. If the social class, as an entity, developed more of an influence, that class’ prestige could greatly increase, resulting in a greater reverence for all of its members. With this

being said, the influence a class had on society could depend on many things including its number of people, its income, and its political power. The middle class in England would not have grown to be a prominent piece of society if it had not further increased its population, money, and political power as it did in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with the Industrial Revolution.
Though some people considered the middle class a group defined by a certain income, there were many divisions, created by professions and ideals, which fragmented middle class.

For example, some people believed that merchants, farmers, traders, and craftsmen were all in different classes (charts pg 371), while others believed that artisans were in a different class from industrial property owners (wc 8 pg 23). However, others believed that the real divides in class are based more on ideals. Neale believed that the middle class had to be concerned about property and social position while the middling class was more interested in removing the benefits that the upper class enjoyed (wc 8 pg 23). Political ideals also ripped classes apart; middle class men in the midlands did not share reform ideas with the anti-Whig middle class of the North (social and culture pg 153). In different jobs people required different things to improve their living, so it is expected that they would have different ideas about necessary reforms and political actions. Because of this, they struggled to make appeals as one group to benefit the middle class as a whole. Despite all of these believed partitions within the middle class, this paper will focus on people that are not factory workers and not upper class men living in urban or suburban areas in England during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. These people are the main focus because their population, money, and political power would not have

increased without this time period.
In the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, some middle class artisans, merchants, and professionals were trying to stake their claim in the urban lifestyle. However, as their practices grew with success, they required more capable workers. Also many trades began to require people that could hold supervisory positions “for which literacy was, if not an absolute requirement, at any rate a great advantage.”(pg 102 literacy and social mobility). People soon began to realize that “’If a man applies for work, and says he cannot read and write, he is asked no more questions.”’ (wc 2 pg 89). Engineers, manufacturers, and even historians from different time periods realized the importance that education and literacy had on living in the new industry-based urban world. (wc 2 pg 89).
Now that education was established as important for success, it was noted that middle class children were much more successful in school than working class children (wc 3 200). This was understandable because most working class children worked instead of going to school, and for the middle class children that went to school, they had the advantage of growing up with parents that were most likely educated as well. As far as population goes, working class people and farmers had more children in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, whereas the urban middle class and upper class had less children (charts pg 372). The people known for success were not repopulating as fast as the undereducated working class. At this rate, the business owners would not get the literate workers they so desired to increase their business and profits.
The only way the middle class population could have grown was if people immigrated into the middle class.

People were given the chance to do this through a growing educational system. As the Industrial Revolution forged on and spread throughout the world, the Royal Commissions on Technical Education began to notice that England was falling behind France, Prussia, and the United States in industrial superiority due to their new innovations and more educated workers (pop primary pg 26 and wc 2 pg 90 ). Falling behind in global importance also related to less money for the common man, so individual capitalists started to strongly support universal education (wc 2 pg

86).
Robert Raikes catalyzed the Sunday school movement in England in 1780 which not only taught religion but also literacy mainly to the working class (pg 14 of the Sunday school book from google). Apparently these schools grew in popularity and were known to promote middle class morals and political ideas (Sunday school not that great pg 132 and 124). As the schools developed, some began to teach history and science (literacy and social mobility pg 104). Along with a development in schools for children, colleges also began to improve. New universities, mainly for the middle class, were created to provide training for medical, engineering, and legal fields (wc2 pg 91). Though many forms of education tried to reach out and improve more than just literacy, being able to read and write was one of the most important skills that a person needed to have during the Industrial Revolution. With this being said, school enrollment in 10 year olds reached 100% in 1900, and literacy rates in men were nearly 100% by 1900 ( wc 2 pg 90).
The Sunday and elementary schools were mainly for working class people. This type of schooling would provide the basic requirements to get into the higher paying jobs like assistant engineers, school teachers, shopkeepers, and many other middle class jobs. Levine insists that male wages increased as the “’large-scale transfer form worse- to better paid jobs”’ occurred during the Industrial Revolution (wc 3 187 an 189). These better jobs that working class people obtained gave them the opportunity to be middle class despite their working class birth ( wc 12 pg 228).
Sunday and elementary schools helped the working class get better jobs, more money, and a higher rank on the social ladder, while Universities further instilled professional ideals in the pre-existing middle class. Therefore those from the middle class did not retrench to a lower class, and many working class people flooded into the middle class grouping. The population of people claiming a middle class title rose drastically over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This growing group of educated middle class people had a bigger influence on society due to their size. This large class of people had a significant role in driving the economy and also upholding England’s industrial status around the world. With this being said, no one wanted to upset them by hindering their access to education or strongly preventing rights in politics. So whenever the capitalist cry went out for educational reforms or higher rates of male suffrage the whole of Britain listened. However, their demands would have been silenced had they not also had the money to justify their desires.