ABSTRACT
This book began by asking about the class character of the petite bourgeoisie during the long nineteenth century. A good number of social observers and sociologists had little doubt that the petite bourgeoisie could indeed be seen as a class at the end of that period. Max Weber identified four social classes in the German Empire, each uniting those with similar relations to the market and with real social connections, and the petite bourgeoisie was one of them.' In France and Belgium in the same years, the debate about the classes moyennes placed the owners of small independent retail and productive enterprises at the heart of society, the literally crucial element in the social structure whose capacity and identity would provide the moral basis for a harmonious social order.2 The concept remained tied to small enterprise, for the debate around a new conception of the classes moyennes began only on the eve of the First World War, a conception which gave increasing priority to white-collar employees, teachers, minor professionals, and managers.
