Citizenship and Social Class

by T.H. Marshall, Tom Bottomore

Over forty years after it first appeared, T.H. Marshall's seminal essay on citizenship and social class in postwar Britain has acquired the status of a classic. His lucid analysis of the principal elements of citizenship -- namely, the possession of civil, political and social rights -- is as relevant today as it was when it first appeared. It is reissued here with a complementary monography by Tom Bottomore in which the meaning of citizenship is re-examined, in very different historical circumstances. In asking how far the prospects for class equality have been realised, Bottomore continues the discussion in a context that encompasses the restoration of civil and political rights in Eastern Europe, problems of welfare capitalism, citizenship and the nation state and the broader issues of equality and democratic institutions.

Genres: Sociology, Politics, Academic, Essays

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Thomas Humprhey Marshall was an English sociologist. He was a civilian prisoner in Germany during the First World War. Later he studied at Trinity College, Oxford and became a professional historian. He was also the Labour candidate in Farnham in 1922. He was the fourth president of the International Sociological Association.

His father was William Cecil Marshall, architect and runner-up in the very first Wimbledon tournament, his sisters included Frances Partidge and Ray Garnett.

Reviews

[Emre · Rating 5 out of 5]

İngiltere ve Avrupa özelinde yurttaşlık kavramının birtakım haklar (medeni, siyasi ve sosyal haklar) üzerinden okunmasına ve sınıfsal eşitsizlik ile ilişkisine dayanan Marshall'ın 1949 tarihli metnine ek olarak Bottomore'un 1950-1980 arasına yönelen değişim analizlerini içeren ikinci metin de oldukça ilgi çekici geldi. Bendeki baskıda Ayhan Kaya'nın kaleme aldığı "Yurttaşlık, Azınlıklar ve Çokkültürlülük" adlı bir bölüm de mevcut. Bu bölümü de meseleye daha güncel bir boyut katması bakımından epey beğendim. Kitabın kaynakçası da oldukça zengin, yurttaşlık meselesine ilgi duyanların bakması iyi olabilir.

[armin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is said to be one of the most essential texts on the notion of citizenship. For a person like me with an American background on this matter, this was a bit hard to grasp since the references, examples, acts, and everything mentioned are about Britain and apart from a few very famous examples, I had to keep looking up the examples. Anyway, Marshall's argument is that citizenship, as an institution that seeks to establish equality, is in direct contrast with capitalism, which is based on inequality, and he tries to figure out how these two fundamentally contradictory notions developed and expanded side by side.
Marshall draws on housing, healthcare, education, civil rights, political rights, and universal basic income in order to address the guarantees that the citizenship offers citizens and seeks to track how each of these fields interacts with the others. There is very little focus on the issue of women and the fact that the post-war Britain was changing dramatically in terms of women's social participation. Despite everything, It's a classic and you should read it if you are working on citizenship.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant and pathbreaking (at the time of its authorship) but also dated and flawed. Isin and Wood do a decent job of succinctly summarizing salient criticisms in Chapter 2 of Citizenship and Identity. Marshall's work formed the germ of many subsequent, powerful theoretical critiques (e.g., those of Nancy Fraser, Linda Gordon, Evelyn Nakano Glenn). Indispensable to anyone interested in social policy and citizenship, inter alia.

[Katie Colley · Rating 2 out of 5]

its all getting a bit classist luv

[Jonathan Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for those who wish to deal with citizenship.

[Jax · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is what we call liberal bullshit

[Sam Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is weird. It is half the 50 page essay he wrote with the same title and half another, not nearly as good or relevant, essay by Tom Bottomore. That essay (also available in other books), is definitely a must-read for anyone studying citizenship (of any variety), since it has underlain all social scientific engagement with the topic since at least the early 1990s and really since it was written in 1950.