This title offers the first global history of the middle class. While the 19th century has been described as the golden age of the European bourgeoisie, the emergence of the middle class and bourgeois culture was not exclusive to Europe. The collection explores the rise of the middle classes around the world during the age of empire. Bringing together eminent scholars, it compares middle-class formation in various regions, highlighting differences and similarities, and assesses the extent to which bourgeois growth was tied to the increasing exchange of ideas and goods. The contributors indicate that the middle class was from its very beginning, even in Europe, the result of international connections and entanglements. Placing the establishment of middle-class society into historical context, this book shows how the triumph or destabilization of bourgeois values can shape the liberal world order, and irrevocably changes the understanding of how an important social class came to be.