Expert: Joseph Logue - 1/31/2008

Question
Dear sir,

i attend british cultural studies and i'm really into it, so i applied for presentation about british social class system. I'm sure my teacher means that i should say something about the classes trough history of England but, of course, focus on the modern times.
So, i was wondering if you could describe, briefly, the class division in the period that your expertise covers...

Thank you very much!

Regards!

Answer
Hello Marina,

Very briefly (very!) I would say that the social classes were headed of course by the monarch and the Royal Family.  Below that whole lot (really for just about any period discussed) would be the aristocracy with the more senior titles outranking the more recent titleholders.  Below them might be the professional military, or those who were landed.  Beyond that -- at this is a wide gulf -- there would be prosperous merchants (those "in trade"), then tradespeople of all sorts, poorer farmers, laborers, and the poor.  While these distinctions are not concrete, they do provide a general outline for the different classes of people.

Sincerely,

Joseph Logue