Power and the Professions in Britain, 1700-1850

Penelope J. Corfield criticises orthodox interpretations of British history that put excessive stress on the power of the landed aristocracy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Other social groups - especially in the towns - also wielded influence. One of these was the emergent professions. They wielded power through their specialist knowledge, and they excluded the laity by use of specialist jargons. Corfield considers the nature of the professions' power and how it related to their specialist knowledge. Initially drawing on the views of Bacon and Foucault, Corfield then broadens the philosophical debate and describes how in the complex reality the emergent professions gained power through their knowledge, but also consolidated their role as their activities were institutionalised in the nineteenth century. With separate chapters on doctors, lawyers and clerics, and covering a wide range of other professions, Power and the Professions in Britain 1700-1850 is an important contribution to the growing body of work focusing on the professional classes. It will also be recognized as a challenging and important work on the social and economic history of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain.