1. The Role of Biography in Social and Historical Studies. Biography and History, People and Cultures. Historical Sociology and Collective Biography -- 2. The Victorian Context. The Progress of Canadian Culture. The Meaning of Democracy and Equality in a Developing Culture. Success. Character as a Bridge for Social Change. Samuel Smiles and the Sanctity of Individual Effort. Phrenology: Physiognomy as an Image of Social Place -- 3. The Biographers at Work. The Proper Data for the Object Lesson. Creating a Biographical Dictionary: Morgan's Method. The Basic Data of Biographical Representation. Three Representative Men -- 4. Social Mobility and Group Affiliation. Horizontal Mobility as the Retention of Generational Power. Group Affiliation and Social Participation. Shared Affiliation in Two National Organizations. Group Affiliation at the Local Level. Levels of Social Participation -- 5. Representative Distinctions Men and Women in the Collective Biographies. "Differentiation" and "Fidelity": A Cultural Analysis of Gender Representation -- 6. The Structure of Feeling in the Emerging Middle Class. Personality Characteristics of Biographical Subjects. The Emergence of a Mediating Class. The Professional Ideal and the Middle Class. Appendix. A Note on Methodology.