A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petite Bourgeoisie: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie

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The phrase "a nation of shopkeepers" is an expression commonly used to refer to England or the United Kingdom. It is often attributed to Napoleon, though this claim is disputed and earlier occurrences exist.

A Nation of Shopkeepers: Trade Ephemera from 1654 to the 1860s in the John Johnson Collection by Julie Anne Lambert (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 2001) 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 petty 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? Mike Savage, author of The Return of Inequality “A brilliantly readable exploration of the difficulties and the necessity of class analysis for any imaginably successful left politics.”A fascinating and accessible account of a social class that is too often neglected or misunderstood. This book powerfully makes the case for a sociologically informed analysis of the capitalist class structure today.”– Tom Mills, author of The BBC: Myth of a Public Service After all, imperialism is a capitalist imperative that benefits not only the ruling classes, but every class in the imperial core, even the most exploited ones. Perhaps because he is British, he is unaware of how strongly the desire to attain and retain the objective and subjective power of being an American motivates people’s politics. Even the working class in the imperial core *does* have something to lose — the massive privilege and power that simply being a part of the empire affords us. This fuels reactionary politics across all classes as strongly as domestic conditions do, if not even moreso. (For instance, the traditional petite bourgeoisie in the US has long identified China as a source of competition, which leads them to support right-wing politicians who are more willing to engage in openly racist denunciations of China, which in turn prompts the Democrats to try to match their “tough on China” rhetoric, thus ratcheting the entire Overton window even further towards racist, imperialist reactionary politics). It sounds like a terrifying leap to make. But then, as Dan Evans would argue, there is so much to gain.

stars for the excellent critique of the contemporary Western left, and the very helpful outlining of the petite bourgeoisie as a class defined by precarity and social mobility. This book introduces a way of looking at class that is much more comprehensive and useful than simply proletariat vs bourgeoisie, given the complex class structures of the UK and US in which the “intermediary classes” (the petite boug & the PMC) are more numerous and more politically active than the working class. Evans does a terrific job of helping us break out of classic class schemas that are either too abstract to help practical political interventions or have not kept up to date with the evolving and complex developments in the formation of classes in Britain. ”– Mike Wayne, author of England’s Discontents

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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 petty 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?