ABSTRACT
The novelists and social historians of the nineteenth century emphasized time and again the wide differences which existed between the various social classes in England 1 without attempting either to define ‘social class’ or to measure the numbers in each of the classes which were assumed to be in existence. In the twentieth century sociologists and social psychologists have devoted a great deal of attention to the concept of social class and its significance in society, but the fundamental problem of determining the criteria which distinguish one class from another is still unresolved, and it would be difficult to find a definition and form of measurement which would be universally acceptable.
