Introduction

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 1 first details the expansion and development of the professions in the reign of Victoria looking at their size and organization. It then shows that the professions were perceived by contemporary novelists and others as a distinctive social group. Next, it looks at how the professions have been viewed by sociologists and historians, and the extent to which they have been differentiated from other sections of propertied society. Finally, the chapter introduces the methodology that the authors use to write a collective biography of a representative sample of professional men and their families across four generations in order to investigate whether or not professional men had a distinctive socio-cultural identity. It explains the rationale of the choice of towns selected for study, the occupations deemed to be a profession in the Victorian era, and the biographical variables investigated.