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

0.0(0)
studied byStudied by 0 people
learnLearn
examPractice Test
spaced repetitionSpaced Repetition
heart puzzleMatch
flashcardsFlashcards
Card Sorting

1/59

flashcard set

Earn XP

Description and Tags

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.

Study Analytics
Name
Mastery
Learn
Test
Matching
Spaced

No study sessions yet.

60 Terms

1
New cards

Industrial Revolution

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

2
New cards

Mechanical Age

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

3
New cards

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.

4
New cards

Great Exhibition (1851)

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

5
New cards

Factory Question

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

6
New cards

Child Labour

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

7
New cards

Cotton Mill

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

8
New cards

Rail Network

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

9
New cards

Urbanisation

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

10
New cards

Literacy Rate

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

11
New cards

Population Density

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

12
New cards

Thomas Carlyle

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

13
New cards

Wolfgang Schivelbusch

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

14
New cards

Rain, Steam and Speed

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

15
New cards

Great Western Railway

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

16
New cards

Interregnum / Commonwealth

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

17
New cards

House of Windsor

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

18
New cards

Rotten Borough

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

19
New cards

Pocket Borough

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

20
New cards

Reform Act 1832

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

21
New cards

Reform Act 1867

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

22
New cards

Reform Act 1884

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

23
New cards

Ballot Act 1872

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

24
New cards

Chartism

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

25
New cards

People’s Charter (1838)

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

26
New cards

Middle Class

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

27
New cards

Self-Help (Samuel Smiles)

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

28
New cards

Respectability

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

29
New cards

Pierre Bourdieu

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

30
New cards

Economic Capital

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

31
New cards

Cultural Capital

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

32
New cards

Social Capital

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

33
New cards

Symbolic Capital

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

34
New cards

Class Identity

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

35
New cards

Industrial (Social-Problem) Novel

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

36
New cards

North and South (Gaskell, 1855)

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

37
New cards

Mary Barton

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

38
New cards

Hard Times

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

39
New cards

The Condition of the Working Class in England

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

40
New cards

London Labour and the London Poor

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

41
New cards

New Poor Law (1834)

Legislation replacing outdoor relief with deterrent workhouses for the destitute.

42
New cards

Workhouse

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

43
New cards

Bourgeoisie

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

44
New cards

Proletariat

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

45
New cards

Alienation

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

46
New cards

Class Struggle

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

47
New cards

Karl Marx

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

48
New cards

Friedrich Engels

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

49
New cards

Communist Manifesto (1848)

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

50
New cards

Bourgeois Ideology

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

51
New cards

Power (political)

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

52
New cards

Industrial Capitalist

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

53
New cards

Masters and Men

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

54
New cards

Annihilation of Distance

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

55
New cards

Machinery

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

56
New cards

Specialisation of Work

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

57
New cards

Suburbs

Residential zones outside city centres made accessible by commuter railways.

58
New cards

Standard Time

Uniform national timekeeping introduced to coordinate railway timetables.

59
New cards

Great Exhibition Themes

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

60
New cards

Factory Child Health

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