The Elite and Middle Class Values
The Victorian Era began with the elite in total control of society and its politics. The elite class was made up of 300 families which were firmly established as the traditional ruling class. However, the development of new types of values, such as individualism, introduced changes throughout the Victorian Era. The idea of the self-made man became dominant in the middle class. Similar to the American Dream, the idea is that, if they work hard enough, all men can become wealthy.
Read more about this topic: Victorian Morality
Famous quotes containing the words elite, middle, class and/or values:
“Much of what passes for quality on British television is no more than a reflection of the narrow elite which controls it and has always thought that its tastes were synonymous with quality.”
—Rupert Murdoch (b. 1931)
“Radicalism is the opium of the middle class.”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)
“God of justice, save the people
From the clash of race and creed,
From the strife of class and faction,
Make our nation free indeed;”
—William Pierson Merrill (1867–1954)
“Our culture is ill-equipped to assert the bourgeois values which would be the salvation of the under-class, because we have lost those values ourselves.”
—Norman Podhoretz (b. 1930)