An overview of the social, economic, cultural and political development of the petite bourgeoisie in modern Europe is provided here. This study brings together both primary research and secondary literature to assess the group's role in European social history.

First published in 1995. Geoffrey Crossick and Heinz-Gerhard Haupt provide a major overview of the social, economic, cultural and political development of the petite bourgeoisie in eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. Through comparative analysis the authors examine issues such as the centrality of small enterprise to industrial change, the importance of family and locality to the petit-bourgeois world, the search for stability and status, and the associated political move to the right. This title will be of interest to students of history.

The Petty Bourgeois is a play by Maxim Gorky produced in Moscow in 1902.Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) was one of the greatest Russian writers. He inherited the best traditions of 19th century classical Russian literature and was at the same time the creator of a new art, socialist realism; he laid the foundations of the young Soviet Literature.In the early years of the 20th century Gorky came under the influence of Anton Chekhov and through him established contact with Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovish-Danchenko, the leading figures of the Moscow Art Theatre; for this theatre he wrote his plays Philistines and The Lower Depths. The Lower Depths made a triumphant tour of many European countries and brought the writer world fame.

A Nation of Shopkeepers explores the unstoppable rise of the petite-bourgeoisie, one of the most powerful, but underexplored, classes in modern society. The petite-bourgeoisie — the insecure class between the working class and the bourgeoisie — is hugely significant within global politics. Yet it remains something of a mystery. Initially identified as a powerful political force by theorists like Marx and Poulantzas, the petit-bourgeoisie was expected to decline, as small businesses and small property were gradually swallowed up by monopoly capitalism. Yet, far from disappearing, structural changes to the global economy under neoliberalism have instead grown the petite-bourgeoisie, and the individualist values associated with it have been popularized by a society which fetishizes "aspiration", home ownership and entrepreneurship. So why has this happened? A Nation of Shopkeepers sheds a light on this mysterious class, exploring the class structure of contemporary Britain and the growth of the petite-bourgeoisie following Thatcherism. It shows how the rise of home ownership, small landlordism and radical changes to the world of work have increasingly inculcated values of petite-bourgeois individualism; how popular culture has promoted and reproduced values of aspiration and conspicuous consumption that militate against socialist organizing; and, most importantly, what the unstoppable rise of the petit-bourgeoisie means for the left.

America has a long tradition of middle-class radicalism, albeit one that intellectual orthodoxy has tended to obscure. The Radical Middle Class seeks to uncover the democratic, populist, and even anticapitalist legacy of the middle class. By examining in particular the independent small business sector or petite bourgeoisie, using Progressive Era Portland, Oregon, as a case study, Robert Johnston shows that class still matters in America. But it matters only if the politics and culture of the leading player in affairs of class, the middle class, is dramatically reconceived. This book is a powerful combination of intellectual, business, labor, medical, and, above all, political history. Its author also humanizes the middle class by describing the lives of four small business owners: Harry Lane, Will Daly, William U'Ren, and Lora Little. Lane was Portland's reform mayor before becoming one of only six senators to vote against U.S. entry into World War I. Daly was Oregon's most prominent labor leader and a onetime Socialist. U'Ren was the national architect of the direct democracy movement. Little was a leading antivaccinationist. The Radical Middle Class further explores the Portland Ku Klux Klan and concludes with a national overview of the American middle class from the Progressive Era to the present. With its engaging narrative, conceptual richness, and daring argumentation, it will be welcomed by all who understand that reexamining the middle class can yield not only better scholarship but firmer grounds for democratic hope.

Consumerism in China has developed rapidly. The Changing Landscape of China's Consumerism looks at the growth of consumerism in China from both a socio-economic and a political/cultural angle. It examines changing trends in consumption in China as well as the impact of these trends on society, and the politics and culture surrounding them. It examines the ways in which, despite needing to "unlock" the spending power of the rural provinces, the Chinese authorities are also keen to maintain certain attitudes towards the Communist Party and socialism "with Chinese Characteristics." Overall, it aims to show that consumerism in China today is both an economic and political phenomenon and one which requires both surrounding political culture and economic trends for its continued establishment. The ways in which this dual relationship both supports and battles with itself are explored through apposite case studies including the use of New Confucianism in the market context, the commodification of Lei Feng, the new Chinese tourist as a diplomatic tool in consumption, the popularity of Shanzhai (fake product) culture, and the conspicuous consumption of China's new middle class. - Provides innovative interdisciplinary research, useful to cultural studies, sociology, Chinese studies, and politics - Examines changes in consumerism from multiple perspectives - Allows both micro and macro insights into consumerism in China by providing specific case studies, while placing these within the context of geo-politics and grand theory

Jacques Barzun's masterful translation proves that Flaubert's Dictionary of Accepted Ideas--an acid catalogue of the clichés of 19th-century France--is as relevant today as ever.

Nicos Poulantzas’s third major work is a pioneering survey of some of the most fundamental, yet least studied, aspects of the class structure of advanced capitalist societies today. The book starts with a general theoretical essay that for the first time seriously explores the distinction between the “agents” and “positions” of capitalist relations of production, and seeks to avoid the typical errors of either functionalism or historicism. It also provides a polemical reconsideration of the problem of the “nation state” as a political unit today, and its relationship to the internationalization of capital. Finally, and most originally, Poulantzas develops a long and powerful analysis of the much-abused concept of the “petty-bourgeoisie.” In this, he scrupulously distinguishes between the “traditional” categories of petty-bourgeoisie—shopkeepers, artisans, small peasants—and the “new” categories of clerical workers, supervisors, and salaried personnel in modern industry and commerce. At the same time he demonstrates the reasons why a unitary conceptualization of their class position is possible. The difficult question of the definition of “productive” and “unproductive” labor within Marx’s own account of the capitalist mode of production is subjected to a novel and radical reinterpretation. The political oscillations peculiar to each form of petty-bourgeoisie and especially their characteristic reactions to the industrial proletariat, are cogently assessed. Poulantzas ends his work with a reminder that the actions and options of the petty-bourgeoisie are critical to any successful struggle by the working class, which must secure the alliance of important sections of the petty-bourgeoisie if the fateful experience of Chile is not to recur elsewhere tomorrow. Combining empirical and theoretical materials throughout, Classes in Contemporary Capitalism represents a notable achievement in the development of Marxist social science and political thought.