Date:         Mon, 5 Jun 1995 12:48:17 -0400
From: "Virginia P. Thornton" <vpt7g@FARADAY.CLAS.VIRGINIA.EDU>
Subject:      Class in 18thC List
To: Multiple recipients of list C18-L <C18-L@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>

I stopped counting after the 30th request!  Here's the list (if
something seems to be missing or if new thoughts occur, please
feel free to drop a note either to me or to the list):

              Class in the 18th Century

[I've incorporated the descriptions and remarks that respondents
included with their suggestions, and tried where possible to
provide complete citations.  Thanks again to those who
contributed. --Ginger Thornton]


_Albion's Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth-
     century England_. London: Allen Lane, 1975.

Callincos, Alex. _Theories & Narratives_. Polity
     Press, 1995. [Not a historian's perspective but a
     thorough review of the 'end of history' &
     poststructuralism debate.]

_The Cambridge Social History of Britain, 1750-1950_.
     Ed. F.M.L. Thompson. Cambridge: Cambridge
     University Press, 1990.

Conley, Caroline. [Couldn't find a citation. Described
     as a monograph on the dispensation of justice in
     Kent.]

Davidoff, Leonore, and Catherine Hall. _Family
     Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle
     Class, 1780-1850_. Chicago: University of Chicago
     Press, 1987. [Mostly on 19th C., but with an
     interesting argument about the 18th C.]

Himmelfarb, Gertrude. [The suggestion here seemed to
     be to read widely in Himmelfarb, particularly the
     most recent work.]

_History and Class: Essential Readings in Theory and
     Interpretation_. Ed. R.S. Neale. Oxford: B.
     Blackwell, 1983.  [See particularly the chapter
     entitled "Class in English History 1680-1850."]

Jones, Gareth Stedman.  _Languages of Class: Studies
     in English Working Class History, 1832-1982_.
     Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. [The
     suggestion here was to read recent work (this
     doesn't seem that recent) that questions the idea
     that class was constructed at all in the 18th C.]

Joyce, Patrick. Democratic _Subjects: The Self and the
     Social in Nineteenth-century England_. Cambridge:
     Cambridge University Press, 1994.  [This work and
     the next apparently have some useful introductory
     material on the 18th century.]

-----. _Visions of the People: Industrial England and
     the Question of Class, 1848-1914_. Cambridge:
     Cambridge University Press, 1991.

_Landowners, Capitalists, and Entrepreneurs: Essays
     for Sir John Habakkuk_. Ed. F.M.L. Thompson.
     Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.

Langbein, John. "_Albion's_ Fatal Flaws." _Past and
     Present_ (1984). [A critique of the approach
     taken in _Albion's Fatal Tree_.]

_Language, History and Class_. Ed. Penny Corfield.
     Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1991.

Laslett, Peter. _The World We Have Lost_. 3rd ed. New
     York: Scribners, 1984. [Suggested as useful
     background.]

"Making of the Middle Class." _Journal of British
     Studies_ 32.4 (October 1993): 396. [A forum.]

McKeon, Michael. "Historicizing Patriarchy: The
     Emergence of Gender Difference in England, 1660-
     1760." _Eighteenth Century Studies_ 28.3 (Spring
     1995): 295-322. [Although primarily about
     constructions of gender, also addresses class.]

-----. _The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740_.
     Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987.

Randall, Adrian J. _Before the Luddites: Custom,
     Community, and Machinery in the English Woollen
     Industry, 1776-1809_.  Cambridge: Cambridge
     University Press, 1991. [Deals with constructions
     of class in the period 1777-1809 in relation to
     work and machinery. The last chapter contains an
     interesting discussion of whether we can speak
     about class or class consciousness in the period
     Randall is discussing (his own view is that we
     can't: he prefers to talk about a community
     "mentalit ").]

Scott, Joan. "On Women in the Making of the English
     Working Class." In _Gender and the Politics of
     History_. New York: Columbia University Press,
     1988. [A critique of Thompson.]

Smail, John. _The Origins of Middle-Class Culture:
     Halifax, Yorkshire, 1660-1780_. Cornell UP, 1994.

Stone, Lawrence. _The Family, Sex and Marriage in
     England, 1500-1800_. London: Weidenfeld &
     Nicolson, 1977.

Thompson, E.P. "Eighteenth-century English Society:
     Class Struggle with Class?" _Social History_ 3.2
     (1978): 133-65.

-----. _Customs in Common_. New York: New Press, 1991.
     [An updated compilation of his various essays on
     18C society.]

-----. _Whigs and Hunters: The Origin of the Black
     Act_. New York: Pantheon Books, 1975.
     [Construction of class in the earlier part of the
     C18.]

Valenze, Deborah. _The First Industrial Woman_. New
     York: Oxford University Press, 1994.