First published in 1972, this collection of essays by R. S. Neale focuses on authority, and the responses and challenges to it made by men and women throughout the nineteenth century. Employing a more sociologically-minded approach to history and specifically using a 'five-class' model, the book explores features of class and ideology in Britain and its Empire. It includes a range of case studies such as the Bath radicals, the members of executive councils in the Australian colonies, and the social strata in the women's movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This book will be of interest to those studying Victorian history and sociology.

Introduction, R S Neale; Chapter 1 Class and class consciousness in early nineteenth-century England: three classes or five?, R S Neale; Chapter 2 Class and ideology in a provincial city: Bath 1800-50, R S Neale; Chapter 3 Class conflict and the poll books in Victorian England, R S Neale; Chapter 4 H. S. Chapman, class consciousness and the 'Victorian' ballot, R S Neale; Chapter 5 The colonies and social mobility: governors and executive councillors in Australia, 1788-1856, R S Neale; Chapter 6 'Middle-class' morality and the systematic colonizers, R S Neale; Chapter 7 Working-class women and women's suffrage, R S Neale;