Property and Privilege in Perspective

Abstract

‘The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.’¹ So wrote Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto. Since that claim was made there has been much debate and discussion not only about the truth of the claim, but also about the meaning of its central term. What is a ‘class’? This is the question which has dogged much sociological and historical writing up to the present. The fact that different writers have given the term varying meanings has resulted in the absence of a true dialogue in research on class. Equally, the attempt to expunge the word ‘class’ from the sociological vocabulary has only made the confusion worse by the introduction of such vague alternatives as ‘elite’ and ‘mass’. It is for these reasons that my attempt to document the development of the privileged classes in Britain must begin with a discussion of some of the concepts which will be used in this book. I do not pretend to have resolved the many important disputes which have centred on the concept of ‘class’, but I do feel that it is necessary to make it perfectly clear how various terms are to be used in this book.