ABSTRACT
Although historians are now much more cautious than once they were aboutarguing that the Industrial Revolution led to the emergence of mutually antagonistic relations between social classes (see Chapter 8), there is no doubt that major changes in production techniques and the distribution of wealth generated substantial social change. When these changes are analysed from the perspective of social function within the overall system of production, then attention tends to focus on defined groups: landowners; owners of substantial capital, both industrial and commercial; small proprietors with limited capital (such as shopkeepers); and those who were employed, and mostly worked for wages. Alternatively, the emphasis can also be placed on differences in status, which are grounded in perceptions of where individuals fit within a given social hierarchy.1 Neither categorisation is watertight but the latter is probably a more fruitful way of capturing the dynamics of social change.
