ABSTRACT
The theme of these essays is class: class, class consciousness and ideology in England between 1800 and 1850, some aspects of class in early Australia between 1788 and 1860, and class and relationships between social strata in the women’s movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In bringing these essays together I hope to persuade students of history to think critically about the terminology of class and to consider the heuristic value of conflict models of social change in historical study. They may also help students to develop an awareness of the ways in which accepted opinions and beliefs work to influence the outcome of their own studies. It is not my wish to try to replace old or newer orthodoxies by another, but that more students of history will recognize, and accept, the importance of explicitly clarifying assumptions about the structure of society and the mechanisms of social change which influence their choice of problems to study, their procedures and interpretations.
