A Dangerous Class: The Street Sellers of Nineteenth-Century London.

HISTORY of London, England; WORKING class; CHARTISM; STREET vendors; PUBLIC meetings; CAPITALISM; MIDDLE class; RADICALISM; SOCIAL conflict; PUBLIC spaces; NINETEENTH century; POLITICAL participation; HISTORY

UNITED Kingdom; LONDON (England); ENGLAND

In this article, the author examines how the 19th-century street sellers of London, England, undermined British capitalism and the bourgeoisie. Broadly, the author is concerned with the generation of urban class conflict in 19th-century Great Britain. More specifically, the author examines street sellers' engagement in such subversive working-class activities as participation in public meetings, involvement in the Chartist reform movement, work with radical organizations, and the selling of inexpensive goods to the poor, and the ways in which they promoted working class solidarity and socialization. Also examined are street vendors' efforts to appropriate public space.