Artisan Elite in Victorian Society

Taylor & Francis

An Artisan Elite in Victorian SocietyKentish London 1840-1880\nAuthor(s): Geoffrey Crossick\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9781138647084, 978-1138647084\nSynopsis\nFirst published in 1978. Mid-Victorian Britain was relatively stable in comparison with the turbulent period that preceded it, and that stability is in part explained by the emergence of an artisan elite with a specific relationship to the society around it. This book examines that elite: its clubs and societies, co-operatives and building societies; its values and ideology, challenging the notion that these artisans directly absorbed middle-class values; its politics, tracing the evolution from Chartism through the Reform League and on to a radical liberalism which existed in constant tension with the local liberal middle class. \n\nA careful reconstruction of the social, political and industrial life of these artisans is set within the context of the l.