Family Fortunes ― Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780?850

First published to wide critical acclaim in 1987, Family Fortunes has become a seminal text in class and gender history, and its influence in the field continues to be extensive today.

The book explores the middle-class family and its place in the development of capitalist society. It argues that gender and class need to be thought about together – that class was always gendered and gender always classed. Divided into three parts, the book covers religion and ideology, economic structure and opportunity, and gender in action across two main case studies: the rural counties of Suffolk and Essex and the industrial town of Birmingham. This third edition contains a new introductory section by Catherine Hall, reflecting on some of the major developments in historical thinking over the last fifteen years and discussing the evolution of key themes such as the family.

Providing critical insight into the perception of middle-class society and gender relations between 1780 and 1850, this volume is essential reading for students of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British social history.

Leonore Davidoff (1932–2014) was Emerita Research Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex and Founding Editor of Gender and History. One of the most influential historians of gender, her numerous publications included Worlds Between: Historical Perspectives on Gender and Class (1995) and Thicker than Water: Siblings and their Relations (2012).

Catherine Hall is Emerita Professor of History and Chair of the Centre for the Study of British Slave-ownership, UCL. Recent publications include Macaulay and Son: Architects of Imperial Britain (2012) and with Nicholas Draper, Keith McClelland, Katie Donington and Rachel Lang, Legacies of British Slave-ownership: Colonial Slavery and the Formation of Victorian Britain (2014).