Britishness, Power, Identity & Class: Social Change in 19th-Century Britain

A set of 60 vocabulary flashcards summarising the key terms and concepts from the lecture on Britishness, power, identity, class and the social changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in 19th-century Britain.

Industrial Revolution

18th–19th-century shift from agrarian hand production to mechanised factory production that transformed work, society and the economy.

Mechanical Age

Thomas Carlyle’s label for an era dominated by machinery, standardised processes and mechanised ways of thinking and living.

Annihilation of Space and Time

Schivelbusch’s idea that railways and steam power compressed distance and travel time, radically altering perceptions of space and time.

Great Exhibition (1851)

International showcase of British industrial progress in London’s Crystal Palace, displaying machinery, manufactures, fine arts and raw materials.

Factory Question

19th-century debate over health, hours and morality of factory labour, especially concerning women and children.

Child Labour

Employment of children in factories and mines; linked to long hours, disease and parliamentary investigations.

Cotton Mill

Textile factory using mechanised spinning and weaving; emblematic workplace of the Industrial Revolution.

Rail Network

Expanding 19th-century system of rail lines and stations that reduced London-Edinburgh travel to 1.5 days by 1830.

Urbanisation

Migration into towns; Britain’s urban population rose from 30 % (1801) to 80 % (1901).

Literacy Rate

Measure of reading/writing ability; British literacy climbed from c.50 % (1800) to 80 % (1900).

Population Density

Number of people per square mile; maps show dramatic growth in England and Wales between 1801 and 1891.

Thomas Carlyle

Scottish essayist who critiqued industrial mechanisation in “Signs of the Times” (1829).

Wolfgang Schivelbusch

Cultural historian who examined the railway’s impact on perceptions of space and time in The Railway Journey (1977/9).

Rain, Steam and Speed

Turner’s 1844 painting portraying a train racing through rain, symbolising industrial modernity.

Great Western Railway

Pioneering British railway line; icon of technological progress and national pride.

Interregnum / Commonwealth

1649-1660 period when England lacked a monarchy, situated between the Stuart and restored dynasties.

House of Windsor

Current British royal house, adopted 1917 during World War I.

Rotten Borough

Tiny constituency with few voters yet parliamentary representation, highlighting pre-1832 electoral inequities.

Pocket Borough

Electoral district effectively controlled by a landowner who selected its MP.

Reform Act 1832

First parliamentary reform; extended vote to men renting property worth £10 a year and doubled the electorate.

Reform Act 1867

Second reform; enfranchised many urban working men, adding about one million voters.

Reform Act 1884

Third reform; extended voting rights to rural working men and, with the 1885 act, redistributed seats.

Ballot Act 1872

Introduced the secret ballot, curbing bribery and intimidation in elections.

Chartism

Working-class movement (1830s–40s) campaigning for the People’s Charter and universal male suffrage.

People’s Charter (1838)

Document listing six democratic demands, including votes for all men and the secret ballot.

Middle Class

Social group emerging from industrialisation, associated with self-help, industry, respectability and professional identity.

Self-Help (Samuel Smiles)

1859 bestseller extolling individual effort and perseverance as the basis of national progress.

Respectability

Moral code used to judge social worth; working classes were often denied it (Skeggs).

Pierre Bourdieu

French sociologist who theorised various forms of capital and how taste reproduces class distinctions.

Economic Capital

Material wealth and income that determine one’s position in social space (Bourdieu).

Cultural Capital

Non-economic assets—knowledge, skills, education—existing in embodied, objectified and institutionalised forms.

Social Capital

Resources accruing from networks and group memberships—“who you know.”

Symbolic Capital

Any form of capital regarded as legitimate prestige, honour or authority.

Class Identity

Sense of belonging to a social group, performed through tastes, behaviours and distinctions.

Industrial (Social-Problem) Novel

19th-century fiction exposing the social ills of industrial society to promote reform.

North and South (Gaskell, 1855)

Novel juxtaposing industrial North and agrarian South, advocating reform through empathy between classes.

Mary Barton

Gaskell’s 1848 novel depicting class conflict and hardship in Manchester’s working class.

Hard Times

Charles Dickens’s 1854 critique of utilitarianism and dehumanising factory discipline.

The Condition of the Working Class in England

Friedrich Engels’s 1844 study documenting industrial poverty and health hazards.

London Labour and the London Poor

Henry Mayhew’s 1851 investigative series on urban working-class life and occupations.

New Poor Law (1834)

Legislation replacing outdoor relief with deterrent workhouses for the destitute.

Workhouse

Institution providing relief in exchange for hard labour under harsh conditions.

Bourgeoisie

Marxist term for the capitalist class that owns the means of production.

Proletariat

Marxist term for workers who sell their labour power to survive.

Alienation

Marx’s concept of labourers’ estrangement from products, process and self under capitalism.

Class Struggle

Marx’s idea that history advances through conflict between social classes.

Karl Marx

German philosopher who co-wrote the Communist Manifesto and authored Das Kapital.

Friedrich Engels

Marx’s collaborator; documented industrial conditions and funded Marx’s work.

Communist Manifesto (1848)

Pamphlet urging proletarian revolution and proclaiming: “Workers of all countries, unite!”

Bourgeois Ideology

Set of ideas—individualism, self-help—that justify and sustain capitalist social relations.

Power (political)

Ability to influence governance; in 19th-century Britain linked to property, gender and location.

Industrial Capitalist

Factory owner investing capital and employing labour for profit, e.g., John Thornton in North and South.

Masters and Men

Contemporary phrase for the hierarchical employer–employee relationship in factories.

Annihilation of Distance

Experience of compressed geographical separation due to new transport and communications technologies.

Machinery

Mechanised devices powered by steam or water that replaced human and animal labour.

Specialisation of Work

Separation of paid employment from ‘free time,’ creating new work–leisure rhythms (Raymond Williams).

Suburbs

Residential zones outside city centres made accessible by commuter railways.

Standard Time

Uniform national timekeeping introduced to coordinate railway timetables.

Great Exhibition Themes

Four display categories: Machinery, Manufactures, Fine Arts and Raw Materials.

Factory Child Health

Medical reports noted emaciation, lung disease and stunted growth among child mill workers.