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This paper explains the reasons for the revival of class analysis in British sociology over the past 20 years, placing this in a longer term context of the development of sociology in the UK since 1945. I show how the issue of class was made central to the growth of sociology after the Second World War, but in a form which placed white male manual workers as the central of the “working class”. This focus posed problems for class analysis from the 1970s because de-industrialization, immigration, and changing gender relations appeared to this vision of the working class less relevant. I show how the influential “class structural” approach to class associated with John Goldthorpe and his associates succeeded in championing a model of class which had considerable comparative appeal, but which limited the scope of class analysis. The final part of my paper shows how over the past two decades, Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology has proved very significant in elaborating a rich, multi-dimensional approach to class analysis. I show how the success of the Great British Class Survey, in developing public debates on class, is inspired by these currents.