A Nation of Shopkeepers
The Unstoppable Rise of the Petite Bourgeoisie
by Dan Evans
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Feb 14 2023 | Archive Date Feb 17 2023
Repeater Books | Repeater
Talking about this book? Use #ANationofShopkeepers #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
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.
Advance Praise
"A brilliant account of how and why “working class” and “middle class” have become such useless labels in the UK, and how we are actually divided."
Danny Dorling, author of Slowdown: The End of the Great Acceleration
“A Nation of Shopkeepers asks important questions about class composition beyond the urban centres and “the left.” For those serious about making sense of class and the potential for transforming society today, Daniel Evans’ book makes an important contribution.”
Jamie Woodcock, author of Marx at the Arcade
“This is a fantastically written romp filled with humour and pathos which takes us through the history and peculiarities of the British Class system and its connections to modern British politics.”
Lisa McKenzie, author of Getting By
Available Editions
EDITION | Ebook |
ISBN | 9781913462925 |
PRICE | $8.99 (USD) |
PAGES | 1 |