Bourgeoisie or Middle Class. Prior to the Industrial Revolution there were people of the middling sort, as historians are now inclined to say, but there was not yet a bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie, or middle class, was created by the Industrial Revolution. The size, wealth, and political dominance of this group grew steadily from the late eighteenth century to the beginning of World War I (1914- 1918). It also encompassed a wide range of occupations and wealth, leading to the common use of terms such as lower middle class, middle class, and upper middle class (or petite bourgeoisie, moyenne bourgeoisie, and haute bourgeoisie). In English some of these people are referred to as being "petty bourgeois." The phrase is an anglicization of the French petit bourgeois and refers not to the attitudes of the person but identifies him or her...