“Symposium on Class in the Early Republic,” Journal of the Early Republic 25, no. 4 (Winter 2005), with essays by Kornblith, Rockman, Goloboy, Schocket, and Clark.

Gary J. Kornblith makes the grand statement: “class is back in the study of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century American history.” (p. 523)  To show that class has returned as a viable category of historical analysis after an absence in the 1980s and 1990s, historian Seth Rockman, Jennifer L. Goloboy, and Andrew M. Schocket presented papers on class in the study of the early American republic in 2003.

Seth Rockman treats class as a consequence of one’s material condition and resulting economic inequality rather than as an identity.  Class in early America was not based on consciousness or the awareness of one’s class status, according to Rockman.  It should be used as a rule of thumb for determining an individual’s place in the “economic power relations of capitalism.” (p. 531)

Similar to Rockman’s definition of class, Andrew M. Schocket also argues that class can be ascribed to people based on their economic ability.  Focusing on elites, Schocket notes that capitalistic institutions often dictated one’s place in society, and that elites were elites precisely because they held economic power.  He described elites in two ways: “(a) a distinct minority, who cannot even be a sizeable plurality, and (b) distinguishable from the rest of the population by some fairly objective criteria that most of society would recognize.” (p. 548) The author takes this a step further, however, and argues that there was a second component to elitism that was more psychological and cultural.  Elites were also such because they acted differently and had a different mindset.

Presenting a different notion of class, Jennifer L. Goloboy argues that class was more of consciousness rather than a result of economic power or status.  She observes that Americans have viewed their society as classless and considered most individuals as being middle class.  Although economic disparities, and great wealth and abject poverty, still existed in early American society, Goloboy says that the importance of one’s economic situation was diminished by a sense of acceptable middle-class behavior.  This notion of class in particular has been very resilient; the concept of being middle class is still a powerful idea present-day American society. (p. 538)

Commenting on the three essays in the symposium, Christopher Clark says that regardless of whether class was economically determined or a product of middle-class consciousness, early Americans always had some notion of class distinctions.  Clark notes, “it [class] is in broadest terms concerned with the channeling of access to sources of wealth, or power, or both.” (p. 558)  The middle class came to be an important distinction because it symbolized equality and was worn as a badge of virtue.  The author notes that the study of class in the United States is not limited to working-class distinctions or the question of socialism; it is wider and more nuanced, as is evinced by Stuart Blumin’s work.

Stuart Blumin, The Emergence of the Middle Class: Social Experience in the American City, 1760-1900 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989)

In an effort to give some precision to the broad, all-encompassing idea of the middle class in the United States, Stuart Blumin wrote The Emergence of the Middle Class: Social Experience in the American City, 1760-1900.  Until 1989, most social histories focused on the lower and upper classes in America and ignored the middle class.  Blumin begins his work with a discussion of class in the abstract, sorting through social theories from Marx to contemporary scholars, and forms his own view of the middle class.  As Blumin sees it, the middle class in the United States was created by changes in economic production and was distinguished from the lower and upper classes by a customary way of life.  This customary behavior went beyond vocation or income and included residency patterns, consumption practices, family life, and social associations.  (The author makes the distinction between the “middling sorts” of the earlier eighteenth century from the middle class, saying that the “middling sorts” did not have a distinguishing historical identity.) (Chapter 2)  He argues that what made the middle class distinctive was the physical setting of their work; the changing methods of production that created new forms of non-manual labor set the middle class apart. In this way, Blumin’s notion of the middle class is similar to that of Rockman’s and Schocket’s, defining it as a result of economic power.  It is here that Blumin brings in the urban environment, for it was in the city that many of these new forms of middle class work were created.  Artisans, shops, showrooms, and shops—all were symbolic of the emergence of the middle class in the city.

Using illustrations and drawings, Blumin examines middle class culture, urban workspaces, and home economics.  The domestic sphere was one of the most obvious expressions of middle class culture, emphasizing consumption of domestic goods, such as clothing and furniture. (Chapter 5)  After discussing the shared culture of the middle class, the author then tackles issues of consciousness or class awareness.  He argues that the middle class in the antebellum American city was conscious of their shared culture and identified with each other as such.  On this point, Goloboy’s definition of the middle class is very similar to Blumin’s.  The middle class often joined voluntary associations, such as churches, and organized social events with other members of the middle class, which enhanced class awareness. (Chapter 6)  The final chapter of The Emergence of the Middle Class takes Blumin’s argument beyond the Civil War, examining the solidification of the middle class in the last half of the nineteenth century.  The expansion of the urban environment and the rise of corporations cemented the distinctiveness of white-collar America.  The author leaves it up to the reader to judge just how important, or insignificant, the middle class was in the twentieth century.  Taken in conjunction with the symposium on class, which took place fourteen years after Blumin’s work was published, the middle class in antebellum America seems to be both economic status and collective consciousness.