The Rhetoric of Chartist Domesticity: Gender, Language, and Class in the 1830s and 1840s

1992 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Clark
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Wife Beating ◽  
Sexual Competition ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
The Rich

Who are compelling women and tender babes to procure the means of subsistence in the cotton factories—to be nipt in the bud, to be sacrificed at the shrine of Moloch? They are the rich, the capitalists. [Speech by Mr. Deegan, Chartist, at Stalybridge, 1839]A [Malthusian] pretended philosophy . . . crushes, through the bitter privations it inflicts upon us, the energies of our manhood, making our hearths desolate, our homes wretched, inflicting upon our heart's companions an eternal round of sorrow and despair. [Letter from George Harney to Yorkshire Chartists, 1838]Toryism just means ignorant children in rags, a drunken husband, and an unhappy wife. Chartism is to have a happy home, and smiling, intelligent, and happy families. [Speech by Mr. Macfarlane to Glasgow Chartists, 1839]Chartist political rhetoric was pervaded by images of domestic misery typified in these quotes. Historians have traditionally understood this stress on domesticity as a simple response to the Industrial Revolution's disruption of the home, either denigrating it as inchoate proletarian rage or celebrating it as a heroic defense of the working-class family. But domestic discontent was nothing new in the 1830s, for drink, wife beating, and sexual competition in the workplace had plagued plebeians for decades—if not centuries. Why then did it become such a potent political issue in the 1830s and 1840s? Following Gareth Stedman Jones, the question must be answered by analyzing Chartist domesticity not just as a reflection of social and economic changes, but as a trope that performed specific political functions in Chartist language.

"Us" vs. "Them". Communist Dialectical Images from Interwar Europe and Soviet Russia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adri Kácsor
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Visual Culture ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Political Propaganda ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Interwar Europe

Brawny male workers vs. bulging bourgeois men. Working-class mothers burdened by the hardship of poverty and childcare vs. elegant upper-class women enjoying a lifestyle of privilege. Such juxtaposed images of workers and the rich were prevalent in the visual culture of communism throughout the twentieth century, appearing on posters, illustrations, and other genres of political propaganda across countries and continents. Although these didactic propaganda images have rarely been considered in histories of modernism and the avant-garde, this article argues that they were among the key visual inventions of twentieth-century communist visual culture given their highly innovative aesthetics and juxtaposed structure that provided them a potential to become dialectical. Drawing on examples from interwar Europe and Soviet Russia, this article examines how didactic juxtapositions could become dialectical images, triggering political transformations while also making revolutionary class consciousness visible for the viewer.

STUDIES OF THE CRIMEAN PENINSULA BY RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS (THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY)

2020 ◽  
pp. 201-209
Author(s):  
Oxana M. Kurnikova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Crimean Peninsula ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Crimea ◽  
Imperial Academy ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Historical Past ◽  
The Crimean Peninsula

The rich historical past of the Crimean peninsula, its natural wealth and resources, its beauty at all times attracted the attention of traveling researchers. In the period from the last quarter of the 15th century up to the end of the 18th century, Western and Eastern researchers, visiting the Crimean peninsula for various purposes, studied its geography, biology, and history. Russian scientists-travelers did not have the opportunity to make research trips across the Crimea until the end of the 18th century due to the fact that for three centuries (from 1475 till 1774) the Crimean peninsula was part of the Ottoman Empire, being one of its most important provinces, both in trade, economic, and military-strategic terms. With the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 1783, started the development of newly acquired territories. The beginning of the study of the lands of the Crimean peninsula by Russian scientists is primarily associated with political and economic changes and transformations in the region. For the development and growth of the economy of the Crimean region, information was needed about the structure of the region, its socio-economic and ethnographic features, as well as about its natural resources. Therefore, by order of the Empress of Russia Catherine II and the instructions of the country’s government, the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts sends its scientists to the Crimea. Among Russian pioneers of the Crimean peninsula research in the late 18th century there were Vasily Zuev (1754–1794), Carl Ludwig Habliz (1752–1821), Theodor Chyorny (1745–1790), and Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811). The expeditions of these outstanding scholars and travellers commenced the Crimean exploration by Russian scientists in various fields of science, thus, the end of the 18th century should be considered the beginning of Russian Crimean studies.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Patrick Inglis
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Lower Caste ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Software Technology ◽  
Limited Government ◽  
The World ◽  
Developing Societies ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Way

Thomas L. Friedman, an op-ed writer, has suggested that India, and the world, is flat, with many more opportunities available to poor and working-class Indians on account of innovations in software technology and telecommunications. Critics have largely panned this interpretation of globalization and its effects, typically citing growing inequality in India and across developed and developing societies alike. These same critics, however, ignore the way Friedman’s preferred and often widely adopted policy initiatives—privatization, deregulation, and limited government—actually draw rich and poor together, rather than pull them apart, as is often maintained. Poor and working-class individuals seek out the rich to provide support in the form of wages, interest-free loans, and other benefits unavailable in the society. The chapter draws on the case of poor and lower-caste golf caddies working at the side of wealthy club members in Bangalore to elaborate the limits and consequences of such relationships.

The Pleasures and Anxieties of Being in the Middle: Emerging Middle-Class Identities in Urban South India

2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 559-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
SARA DICKEY
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Class Identity ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
The Past ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Urban South ◽  
Indian City ◽  
The Rich

AbstractRecent economic changes in India have coincided with a dramatic change in the concept of a ‘middle class’ in the south Indian city of Madurai. Whereas previous sets of class identities were overwhelmingly dichotomous (for example, the rich and the poor, or the ‘big people’ and ‘those who have nothing’), the middle class has now become a highly elaborated component of local class structures and identities. It is also a contested category; moreover, its indigenous boundaries differ from those most often used by scholars, marketers, or policy-makers. Drawing from research over the past decade, this paper examines local definitions of ‘middleness’ and the moralized meanings ascribed to it. Whilst being ‘in the middle’ is a source of pride and pleasure, connoting both achievement and enhanced self-control, it is simultaneously a source of great tension, bringing anxiety over the critical and damaging scrutiny of onlookers. For each positive aspect of a middle-class identity that emphasizes security and stability, there is a negative ramification or consequence that highlights the precariousness and potential instability of middle-class life. In exploring each of these aspects, I pay attention to the explicitly performative features of class identities. I conclude by considering the epistemological and experiential insights we gain into the construction of emergent class categories by focusing on self-ascribed identities and their performance.

Rich and poor in the kin-dom of God

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-63
Author(s):  
Debra J. Mumford
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
First Century ◽  
Economic Dynamics ◽  
God's People ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Church

Prosperity preachers contend that God wants all of God’s people to be rich. However, the reality is that wealth is often gained for the few through the labor of the many. Prosperity for the rich minority in first century Palestine, much like in our day, was made possible by the systematic exploitation of the working class majorities. By studying the socio-economic ecology at work in the biblical texts, we are better able to understand the socio-economic dynamics at play throughout our world (both inside and outside of the church) and develop strategies to secure justice for all of God’s people.

Working-Class Cast

2012 ◽  
Vol 644 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika L. Paulson ◽  
Thomas C. O’Guinn
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Class Politics ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Brand Advertising ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Secondary Data Sources

The authors investigate brand advertising as an instrument of class politics, used to shape perceptions of and beliefs about social groups, specifically the working class. These images are consistent with the prescriptions of capitalist realism. The authors content-analyze representations of the working class drawn from a random sample of ads from 1950 to 2010. Quantitative results are compared to a variety of secondary data sources, including the General Social Survey and public opinion polling. The authors find that representations of the working class do not closely follow social, political, or economic changes. If anything, increasingly nostalgic images contradict the disappearance of blue-collar jobs. The authors examine the ads in more depth to explain why the content does not align with objective reality, identifying a variety of tableaus commonly used in representations of the working class that are consistent with capitalist realism and myths of the American class structure.

Yankee Twang

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford R. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Western Music ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Musical Activity ◽  
Live Music ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Rich

Merging scholarly insight with a professional guitarist's keen sense of the musical life, this book delves into the rich tradition of country and western music that is played and loved in the mill towns and cities of the American northeast. The book draws on a wealth of ethnographic material, interviews, and encounters with recorded and live music to reveal the central role of country and western in the social lives and musical activity of working-class New Englanders. As the book shows, an extraordinary multiculturalism informed by New England's kaleidoscope of ethnic groups created a distinctive country and western music style. But the music also gave—and gives—voice to working-class feeling. Yankee country and western emphasizes the western, reflecting the longing for the mythical cowboy's life of rugged but fulfilling individualism. Indeed, many New Englanders use country and western to comment on economic disenfranchisement and express their resentment of a mass media, government, and Nashville music establishment they believe neither reflects nor understands their life experiences.

Value, politics and democracy in the United States

2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Graeber
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
White American ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Rich ◽  
American Working Class

This article examines the role of values in the political discourse of the last decade in the US. It embarks from what many observers had described as a puzzle: the fact that significant parts of the American working class voted against their economic interests but in line with what they perceived to be their values. As a result, a president had been re-elected who cut taxes for the rich while waging an expensive war in Iraq and increasing public debt to historically unprecedented levels. It is argued that large sectors of the white American working class were disappointed with liberal politicians because they associated them with a cultural elite that occupied positions in society that allowed them to pursue careers of intrinsic value in the arts, science, or politics but which were largely closed to the working class. It is thus suggested that the ‘culture wars’ in the US are better interpreted as a struggle over access to the means to behave altruistically. The article rejects the widespread assumption that individuals are narrowly conceived economic self-interest maximizers. Rather, it suggests that human fulfilment can be related to the satisfaction derived from working for the common good.

scholarly journals Social Policy by Other Means? Mutual Aid and the Origins of the Modern Welfare State in Britain During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Harris
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Class Culture ◽  
State Welfare ◽  
Modern Welfare State ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Friendly Societies ◽  
The Rich

Abstract:During the last twenty years, several writers have drawn attention to the role played by friendly societies and other mutual-aid organizations in the development of Britain’s welfare state. Proponents of mutual aid have argued that these organizations were part of the rich associational culture of working-class life; that they represented a viable alternative to state welfare; and that they were eventually undermined by it. However, this article highlights the challenges that these organizations were already facing toward the end of the nineteenth century as a result of changes in working-class culture and the rise of more commercial insurance agencies. It suggests that the rise of state welfare was not so much a cause of these difficulties as a response to them. It also examines the role that friendly societies played in the expansion of welfare services after 1914 and their attitude to calls for further expansion before 1945.

scholarly journals Choosing Death: Working-Class Coming of Age in Contemporary British Cinema

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 746-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Dave
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Social History ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
The Social ◽  
British Cinema ◽  
History Of ◽  
Raymond Williams ◽  
The Individual

Starting with Franco Moretti's hypothesis of a relationship between the experience of modernity and the coming of age narrative in the European novel, this article explores representations of the working-class Bildung in contemporary British films that can be seen as responding to social and economic changes generally associated with neoliberalism. Contrasting the emphasis on the individual negotiation of social space in the films of Danny Boyle with work from a range of directors, including Ken Loach, Penny Woolcock, Shane Meadows and Anton Corbijn, along with recent production cycles such as the football film, the article seeks to identify representations of working-class experiences, both limiting and liberating, which mark the inherently problematic attempt to imagine a successful working-class coming of age. In doing so, the article considers the usefulness of Raymond Williams’ class-inflected account of traditions of the social bond, in particular his notion of a ‘common culture’. At the same time, it examines how such representations of working-class life often emphasise the experience of class conflict, distinguished here from class struggle, and how, formally, this emphasis can result in narratives which are marked less by what Moretti describes as the ‘novelistic’, temporising structures of the classical Bildungsroman and more by the sense of crisis and trauma found in the late Bildungsroman and modern tragedy. Ultimately, the article argues for the relevance of the long view of the social history of Britain, as a pioneer culture of capitalism, in understanding these aspects of the representation of class cultures in contemporary British film.

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