Analyzing social classes and social relations in the second half of the 19th century has been close to the heart of debates among social historians of modern Britain. In this book Alastair Reid explains how the influence of social science in the 1960s led to an emphasis on the rise to power of the bourgeoisie, the increasing subordination of the industrial working class, and the maintenance of domination by a strong form of control. He then shows how more detailed research in each of these areas has recently led to a return to an older historical emphasis on the persistence of aristocratic power, the increasing independence of the working classes, and the centrality of voluntary agreement to a social order based on consent.