The essays in this volume deal chiefly with issues of class and gender which are seen as mutually constitutive of social identity. Historical interest in the idea of modernity is represented in studies of socio-spatial relations of urban culture and in the emergence of gender-laden conceptions of the modern suburban culture of domesticity and consumerism. Art and art patronage are dissected as cultural motifs suggestive both of gender and rank. The detailed cultural aesthetic of the middle classes is explored from the learned societies of the late 18th century to the amateur operatic societies of the 20th-century suburbs. A key focus is the changing and uncertain representation of masculine identities in relation to class.