ne might even argue that their anticipated explosive effect was, in fact, a creation of the middle class and may have not been as disruptive had this class not expressed such disgust and concern. This reaction seems to be indicative of the fact that dime novels provided more for the working class than merely cheap entertainment (although that was just as important). Their production, circulation and the reaction they provoked all contributed to what we might call the Dime Novel Scare of the late 1800s. And while the fiction stories created an excitement in the working class, a sense that there was potential in their own lives to be like the characters they read about, they did not cause a mass alliance of and rebellion by the working class. What they did was allow the working class to see dime novels as an arena much like the one they lived in, one that saw class struggles and the introduction of the potential of both men and women, regardless of class....
