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

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A Nation of Shopkeepers explores the class structure of contemporary Britain and the growth of the petty bourgeoisie following Thatcherism. It shows how the rise of home ownership, small landlordism and huge changes to the world of work have promoted individualism and conspicuous consumption – and what this means for the left. A vivid and passionate account of the renewal of class divisions in British society and the visceral forms they take. Anyone who doubts the relevance of contemporary class divides is encouraged to read this book.” This is a vivid and passionate account of the renewal of class divisions in British society and the visceral forms they take. Anyone who doubts the relevance of contemporary class divides is encouraged to read this book.”– Mike Savage, author of The Return of Inequality Bradley, Chester D.; Bradley, Miriam D. (1952). "Craven and O'meara: Medical Boswells to Jefferson Davis and Napoleon Bonaparte". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 26 (2): 141–152. JSTOR 44443688. PMID 14916285. , p.142; "[T]hough Napoleon generally conversed in Italian with me, as I spoke the language with considerable fluency, from having resided several years in that classical country, whenever he became animated, he always broke out into French, and also whenever he was at a loss for a word": O'Meara, Barry E. (1822). Napoleon in Exile. Vol.II. Philadelphia: Carey & Lea. , p.22 n.

The author dismisses the widely understood myth that class is about wages and instead proceeds with the Marxian understanding of being about one's social relationship at work and ownership of the means of production

Also, while Evans isn't entirely wrong about liberal identity politics (Middle class people *do* use it as a way of asserting their position in the class hierarchy), to give a crude example of the extent to which the book engages with race -- surely a matter of some significance to the contemporary UK class structure -- the word 'race' (the social category) never appears in the book. In contrast, the word 'racist' appears 10 times, generally in the context of critiquing the characterisation of certain groups of people (for example Brexit voters) as being racist. Hmm. Smith is also quoted as saying that Britain was "a nation that is governed by shopkeepers", which is how he put it in the first (1776) edition. It is unlikely that either Adam Smith or Napoleon used the phrase to describe that class of small retailers who would not even have had the franchise. A Nation of Shopkeepers sheds a light on this mysterious class, exploring the class structure of contemporary Britain and the growth of the petty bourgeoisie following Thatcherism. It shows how the rise of home ownership, small landlordism and radical changes to the world of work have increasingly inculcated values of petty bourgeois individualism; how popular culture has promoted and reproduced values of aspiration and conspicuous consumption that militate against socialist organizing; and, most importantly, what the unstoppable rise of the petit-bourgeoisie means for the left.’ 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.

Yet, far from disappearing, structural changes to the global economy under neoliberalism have instead grown the petite-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? The organisation supports reading groups and community libraries around the UK. Reading groups provide an inclusive and accessible space to debate political ideas and strengthen community networks. It also organises online events, where you can put your questions to authors and special guest speakers. Left Book Club is also building a network of reading groups, and it can help you get your own group off the ground. Against the concept of the “99%” and the idea that “we are all workers now” in a constantly evolving working class – and drawing heavily on the work of Poulantzas - Evans argues instead that highly educated and precarious working people constitute a “new petit bourgoisie”. Roughly speaking he sees the petit bourgeoisie (new and old) as today constituting as much as a third of society.There's a lot of really interesting stuff in A Nation of Shopkeepers, and it's notable in that it doesn't feel as though the author is waffling for the sake of reaching a word count to justify the book's existence. In recent years, it's seemed like a lot of nonfiction gets published on 'progressive' topics that might be good for the author's career, but doesn't make that much of a contribution to knowledge. In contrast, this book feels important. It feels original. And it has personality, with Dan Evans weaving in his own experiences and generally departing from the convention that seems to exist where books engaging with the sociology of class must be unreadably dense and leave most readers feeling too stupid for the subject OR be dumbed down to the point where you doubt the author's credibility. Relying on a structuralist Marxist framework, leaning heavily on the work of Poulantzas, they propose that neoliberalism has changed the class structure from one that was relatively simple, with a large working class, small middle and small ruling class; to one that is far more complex, with a bloated intermediate class and a more heterogeneous ruling class. The intermediate, middle class is then best understood when split into two - the "upper" professionals may be classed as the professional-managerial classes, while the "lower", which is frequently degraded and proletarianised, may be classed as the new petty bourgeoisie, with the lower section being much larger than the upper 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. I remember going to my first socialist meeting as an undergraduate. Halfway through, an audience member raised their hand and asked the panel to define the ‘working class’. One speaker, true to his Marxist principles, responded: ‘everyone who doesn’t own the means of production.’

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. The Traditional Petit Bourgeoisie (TPB) is a diverse class, made up largely of self-employed workers who tend to be clustered in the service economy but comprise a huge range of activty – shopkeepers, tradespeople, small landlords, freelancers, farmers, management consultants, personal trainers, tutors etc. They can range from wealthy entrepreneurs, graduates, or people who left school at sixteen.In any case the phrase did not originate with Napoleon, or even Barère. It first appears in a non-pejorative sense in The Wealth of Nations (1776) by Adam Smith, who wrote: The economic conditions of the TPB, the torn position of owning Means of Production whilst being financially dependent on their own labour, influences everything that the TPB does and thinks. The work of a self-employed person is not just their “job”, but an “entire social world whose values, outlook on life and society – thrift, discipline, piety and so on – flowed from their unique working situation.” In 2021, in the EU, there were twenty-one million micro-businesses, making up 93% of all companies within the bloc, employing over eighty million people. In the UK, 96% of all businesses are micro-businesses, and 76% of all businesses have no employees … it is small firms that account for the majority of new jobs created in the British economy.” Dan Evans, A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie, Repeater Books 2023. Buy a copy here. An intriguing, very political, and unexpectedly personal book for those who are obsessed with class and the global failures of the left.”– Alpkan Birelma

Reading this book was a bit like marking a mathematical solution where the pupil gets every step wrong but somehow gets to the right answer at the end. Evans does this in a storming final chapter that excoriates Labourism and left wing activism - for both their disconnect from and contempt for working class people - and ultimately suggests a return to the workplace.

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A brilliantly readable exploration of the difficulties and the necessity of class analysis for any imaginably successful left politics.”– Walter Benn Michaels, author of The Beauty of a Social Problem