ABSTRACT
The expansion of the European middle classes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, together with their political significance, have recently been increasingly studied by social historians. Much of this, however, has been concerned with the propertied middle classes. 1 At the same time students of contemporary social structures have devoted increasing attention to the role of the highly educated but unpropertied strata, East and West. 2 Within the literature and its debate the relations between the educated middle classes and the origins and development of modern socialist organisations during the era of the Second International (circa 1880-1914) have been frequently commented upon, and occasionally examined in more detail in particular periods and contexts. There has never been a study examining the role of the educated middle classes generally' during this formative period for major modern socialist organisations and movements. While socialist intellectuals of the period have been widely studied, this has largely been in biographical treatments or as the l'rincipals in doctrinal disputes and institutional histories. A study of the appeals of socialism for the educated middle and lower middle classes has been lacking.
