IGNOU HISTORY NOTES : History Of Modern Europe (Mid 18th to 20th Centuries)- TRANSITION TO CLASS SOCIETY

IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

History Of Modern Europe Mid 18th to Mid 20th Centuries

TRANSITION TO CLASS SOCIETY

Structure

15.0 Objectives
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Class Socicty Defined
15.3 Thc Transition
15.4 Elements of Survival of the Old : Thc Estates and Corporate Bodies Identities
15.5.1 Community
15.5.2 Thc 1,andcd Aristocracy
15.5.3 Thc Bourgeois~c and thc Workcrs
15.6 Conipeting Identities : The Nation
15.6.1 Other Identities
15.7 Let Us Sunl Up
15.8 Key Words
15.9Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

15.0 OBJECTIVES

After reading this Unit you should be able to :

understand what we mean by a modern class society;
distinguish betwcctl pre-nodern and iiiodern class societies:
learn something about tlie factors that Icd to the eniergence of a niodern class socieh: and
understand tlle relationship between nation and class in modern class socicty.

15.1 INTRODUCTION

The cspansioi of capitalist industrial cconomy a11d tllc growll of modern politics, which you
read bout in your earlier Units. greatly transfor~ncd European Society and life. They resulted
in significant structural changes. of which the clucrgcnce of a n~odcrn class society was a
significant component. Bythis modern class sociely wc mean not simply wlkat was happening
to oldcr social classes and the new social classes which cnlerged with large scale industrialisation,
hut the entire gamut of social cspressions through wllich the new society dcfincd itself as an
indusrrial society.
Indtristrialisiitol and tlc Frcncll Revolition foniied the historicil contest for thc iiioderi class
syst- the context in ivlicli llle nlodc1.11 classes ciicrged defined tlle~liselvcs and played out
llicr Ilstorical roles 111 rclalio to each otlicr and in sllaping socicty and polilics fro111 the 18th
ccnlury lo our own days.
Tl~e socialist niovcn~cnts, iind especially Russian Revolulion of 19 17 presctted a iiajor cliallcge to this ilrriinge~llcnt of socicty. How tlc different classes responded to this challeige
dcpl.*lded, lo a great csccnt, on their situation in the capitillist social order. The collapse of the
sociii!ic! systci in tlic fonncr U.S.S.R and Easlcrn Europe has agaiil greatly affected social
and political intialivcs bv dil'fkrcnt classcs in the capitalis1 world.