The Career Open to Talent Summary and Analysis

A self-conscious middle class emerges as a result of the dual revolution, Hobsbawm explains. It is now possible for a member of the laboring poor to become educated and move into a profession, an opportunity not available previously. The bureaucracy and hierarchy of a civil service arises in France and elsewhere, created by Napoleon. These bureaucracies expand with the growing population, providing a system within which a person of talent or sufficient motivation can rise in authority.

Increasingly, Hobsbawm writes, the traditional form of professional development where a son follows into the work of his father falls away as more mobility appears. The contrast between the working poor and the new middle class is sharp, Hobsbawm explains. These new workers do not get dirty. They do not use their hands.

This new professional...