artisan

social class

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June 18, 2026

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An artisan is a person whose occupation requires skill with their hands, such as a carpenter, blacksmith, or potter. In medieval times, artisans organized into craft guilds. These guilds regulated wages, prices, and quality standards, and protected members from competition. Artisans were typically masters, journeymen, or apprentices, with masters overseeing production and training.123

The rise of the factory system and mass production during the Industrial Revolution led to a decline in independent craftspeople. Many artisans were displaced or forced into factory work with long hours and low wages. Today, artisans often create fine objects for a niche market, and the term "artisanal" is also applied to food products like cheese and bread.43

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organized labour
Origins of craft unionism
…adhered to a conception of artisan republicanism, which celebrated producerist values and the republican ideals of the American Revolution. Counter to this vision ran the corrosive impact of emergent industrial capitalism, which, in the view of the Philadelphia Workingmen’s Party, created “invidious distinctions [and] unjust and unnatural inequalities” by dividing…
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…adhered to a conception of artisan republicanism, which celebrated producerist values and the republican ideals of the American Revolution. Counter to this vision ran the corrosive impact of emergent industrial capitalism, which, in the view of the Philadelphia Workingmen’s Party, created “invidious distinctions [and] unjust and unnatural inequalities” by dividing…
Read More

history of Latin America
Artisans
The Spanish crafts flourished in the encomenderos’ cities, practiced by artisans who had a far humbler social profile than the encomenderos but were like them in being tied to the locality. They, too, frequently married Spanish women and acquired urban and rural property. To…
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The Spanish crafts flourished in the encomenderos’ cities, practiced by artisans who had a far humbler social profile than the encomenderos but were like them in being tied to the locality. They, too, frequently married Spanish women and acquired urban and rural property. To…
Read More

history of Europe
The Revolutions of 1848
Some socialist ideas spread among artisan leaders, who urged a regime in which workers could control their own small firms and labor in harmony and equality. A major propaganda campaign for wider suffrage and political reform brought police action in February 1848, which in turn prompted a classic street rising…
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Some socialist ideas spread among artisan leaders, who urged a regime in which workers could control their own small firms and labor in harmony and equality. A major propaganda campaign for wider suffrage and political reform brought police action in February 1848, which in turn prompted a classic street rising…
Read More