The Emergence of the Middle Class: Social Experience in the American City, 1760-1900 (Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Modern History) [Paperback]

Stuart Mack Blumin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 1989 | ISBN-10: 0521376122 | ISBN-13: 978-0521376129

Of all the terms with which Americans define themselves as members of society, few are as elusive as "middle class." This book traces the emergence of a recognizable and self-aware "middle class" between the era of the American Revolution and the end of the nineteenth century. The author focuses on the development of the middle class in larger American cities, particularly Philadelphia and New York. He examines the middle class in all its complexity, and in its day-to-day existence--at work, in the home, and in the shops, markets, theaters, and other institutions of the big city. The book places the new language of class---in particular the new term "middle class"--in the context of the concrete, interwoven experiences of specific anonymous Americans who were neither manual workers nor members of urban upper classes.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...[Blumin] approaches a wide range of questions, always ina stimulating manner, with a richness and density of illustration." M.J. Daunton, Journal of Urban History

"Stuart Blumin's book is the most important effort to date to bring the question of middle-class formation into the critical caldron of social change in early 19th-century America in the seaboard cities. The best of his evidence is from Philadelphia, whose social history he has mined with diligence and ingenuity. (There are appropriate comparisons with New York and Boston.)" Daniel T. Rodgers, The New Republic

"Blumin's book is a singular combination of massive synthesis, innovative methodology, and imaginative interpretation....Blumin's conceptualization of class is convincing and technically skillful in its implementation." David A. Gerber, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

"Historians have used the category ['middle class'] both to describe and explain social relations, but the criteria for class membership has remained vague. Stuart Blumin makes an admirable intervention into this fuzziness in his extended exploration of different facets of 'increasingly distinctive class experiences' in antebellum cities." Labor History

Book Description

Focusing on its development in larger American cities, particularly Philadelphia and New York, this study analyzes the day-to-day existence of the elusive middle class at work, at home and in the city.

Product Details

• Paperback: 452 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (September 29, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521376122
• ISBN-13: 978-0521376129
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #677,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thinking Person's Book April 11, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Those looking for mindless beach reading will not tear hungrily through this book. Thinking people who want to master a moment in our nation's past will find Stuart Blumin's in-depth analysis of the coming of America's Middle Class absolutely fascinating. They will be stimulated by Professor Blumin's brilliance and expertise as he takes his readers on an intricate tour of America's history. The author's intelligence and passion for his work permeates every word of the text, making this book not another journey into the rhetoric of inflated academics, but a truly insightful examination of a past with which we are all too unfamiliar.

4 of 33 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book and waste your time! January 24, 2000

By kent chamness

Format:Paperback

Stuart Blumin's look into the emergence of the American middle class is nothing more than his desire to see his own words on paper. Time after time, Blumin reiterates points that had been exhausted in previous chapters of his book. The research Blumin did for this book was extensive, but failed to capture the reader's attention. In fact, nothing in this book was written for the reader. It is full of boring diatribes that leave one feeling worse-off for reading. I had fully expected to be challenged and informed by this book, considering the author. Unfortunately, I was left with the understanding that Blumin just really likes to publish books. I would rather shave my entire body with an old cheese grater and be dipped in rubbing alcohol than have to suffer through this book again.