ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that an analysis of stratification and cultural differences within the working class in Victorian Britain can shed some light on the formation of a reformist labour movement, and on the recurring tension in working-class life between accommodative and oppositional responses to the capitalist order. It discusses some wider implications for the development of the British working class. The chapter argues that there were extremely wide differences in the life-chances of various sections of the working population of Victorian Edinburgh. It considers the relations of the stratum to other social strata, and its historical significance for the more general development of the labour movement. The chapter examines the influence of the labour aristocracy on the emerging organization and ideology of the working class as a whole. The response of other manual strata to the labour aristocracy's claim to exercise political and cultural leadership is hard to determine.
