Reference no: EM133233262

Question: The mass of emigrants forming the basic "mother class," in colonial America was a class so large that it believed no other classes existed, and thus no classes at all, and was composed neither of proletarians nor of bourgeois but of petite bourgeois middle class elements, trying to find prosperity and plenty-the only proletarian working class were African slaves. In America, unlike England, because land was plentiful and relatively cheap, and opportunity to move ahead was unrestricted, emigrants were able to own their own labor and control the instruments of their production, which conforms to the Marxian idea of a petite bourgeoisie class. The question often arises why America has never had the type of social revolution experienced by so many other Western nations. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that America was built on the idea of moving ahead. Americans don't want to overthrow the upper class, they want to join it. Discuss.