What is it about?
The term 'aristocracy' has primarily been used as inter-changeable with 'nobility' by historians. But that is not how people in the Georgian period used it. They used it mostly to define those in government, many of whom were peers. This article looks at how the term was used and what it meant both quantitatively and qualitatively and provides digital graphs to illustrate the quantitative side.
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Why is it important?
It is important because we need to understand what people meant in the past and how that shifts our perspective on history.
Perspectives
I have written a book on how the term 'aristocracy' became a point of fierce debate during the early 1790s in Britain between those who were pro-revolution or reform and loyalists who supported the political status quo. How each side in the debates used and defined the term 'aristocracy' enabled understanding of their political positions and what they were arguing for and against. That triggered the article.
Amanda Goodrich
The Open University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: UNDERSTANDING A LANGUAGE OF ‘ARISTOCRACY’, 1700–1850, The Historical Journal, May 2013, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0018246x12000635.
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