Class and Social Honour: Lords, Knights, and Companions

This book develops a theoretical approach to social stratification and applies it to the development of the official system of state honours in Britain, examining the class and status dimensions and proposing an innovative framework for understanding social status. It shows how a system of peerages, knighthoods, and other state-based royal honours emerged from feudal patterns of political rule and became an unplanned framework of social integration, but has since decayed and been challenged by alternative criteria of status. It explores the class basis of the rise and decay of royal honours and includes a review of contemporary attempts to reconstruct and renew a system of social honour that reflects contemporary relations of power and class in Britain.

Format: Hardback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 28 February 2024
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

This comprehensive book delves into the intricate realm of social stratification, offering a theoretical framework that is applied to the development of the official system of state honours in Britain. It comprehensively examines the interplay between class and status, presenting a novel and insightful framework for understanding social status, a crucial yet often overlooked and misunderstood dimension of social hierarchy. Through meticulous research, the book demonstrates that a system of peerages, knighthoods, and other state-based royal honours emerged from the feudal patterns of political rule and gradually evolved into an unplanned framework of social integration in the United Kingdom. However, over the course of the nineteenth century, this system began to decay and face challenges from alternative criteria of status.

The book explores the profound class basis of the rise and decline of royal honours, providing a comprehensive review of contemporary efforts to reconstruct and revitalize a system of social honour that accurately reflects the contemporary power dynamics and class relations in Britain. This work will appeal to scholars and students of class, social inequality, and British social structure, offering valuable insights and perspectives into the complex dynamics of social hierarchy.

Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783031459474