Where did the idea of being WORKING CLASS come from?

60% of British adults today define themselves as 'working class'. But where does this idea of class as an identity actually come from? Until the early 19th century, working people's interests weren't seen as distinct from tradespeople, professionals and industrialists. But this changed as the industrial revolution created fresh divisions in the cities - and a new movement called Chartism emerged to fight for a controversial idea called democracy.

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0:00 Intro
01:14 Small Horizons - Class Under Feudalism
02:02 The Industrial Revolution
02:49 Increasing Awareness of Class in the Cities
03:32 The Classes Rupture
04:24 The Anti-Corn Law League: A Middle Class Cause?
05:27 Chartism and the People's Charter
06:31 Campaigning as the Working Class
08:29 Working Class Politics
09:47 Change at Last for the Workers

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📚 References:
Thompson, D., & Epstein, J., (Eds.), The Chartist Experience: Studies in Working-Class Radicalism and Culture, 1830-1860, (Macmillan, London, 1982).
Thompson, D., The Dignity of Chartism (Verso, London, 2015).
Epstein, J., ‘The Working Class and the People’s Charter’ in International Labor and Working-Class History, No. 28 (1985), pp.69-78.
Schwarzkopf, J., Women in the Chartist Movement, (Macmillan, London, 1991).
Walton, J., Chartism, (Routledge, London, 1999).
Sanders, M., The Poetry of Chartism: Aesthetics, Politics, History, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2009)