This book seeks to examine the ways in which the cinema has defined, mythified and disseminated British national identity during the course of the twentieth century. It takes the form of a series of linked essays which examine chronologically, thematically and by specific case studies of films, stars and genres the complexities and ambiguities in the process of evolution and definition of national identity. It argues for the creation of a distinctive British national identity both in cinema and the wider culture. But it also assesses the creation of alternative identities both ethnic and...
This book seeks to examine the ways in which the cinema has defined, mythified and disseminated British national identity during the course of the twe...
The annual seaside holiday became a common experience in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s and it has a central place in popular memory. Its recent decline has prompted nostalgia and gloom across the media, with a spate of newspaper features every summer bemoaning its decline. This is the first detailed academic cultural study of the rise and fall of the seaside holiday in Britain. This book offers an entertaining and broad interpretation of the holidays and resorts.
The annual seaside holiday became a common experience in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s and it has a central place in popular memory. Its recent decli...
The 19th-century's steam railway epitomized modernity's relentlessly onrushing advance. In this work Ian Carter delves into the cultural impact of train technology, and how this was represented in British society. Why for example did Britain possess no great railway novel? The work's first half tests that assertion by comparing fiction and images by some canonical British figures (Turner, Dickens, Arnold Bennett) against selected French and Russian competitors: Tolstoy, Zola, Monet, Manet. The second half proposes that if high cultural work on the British steam railway is thin, then this does...
The 19th-century's steam railway epitomized modernity's relentlessly onrushing advance. In this work Ian Carter delves into the cultural impact of tra...
Drawing on an eclectic range of primary and secondary sources Chaplin examines the development of darts in the context of English society in the early twentieth century. He reveals how darts was transformed during the interwar years to become one of the most popular recreations in England, not just amongst working class men and, to a lesser extent, working class women but even (to some extent) among the middle and upper classes. This book assesses the social, economic and cultural forces behind this transformation. This work also considers the growth of the darts manufacturing industry...
Drawing on an eclectic range of primary and secondary sources Chaplin examines the development of darts in the context of English society in the early...
From the bawdy audience of a Victorian Penny Gaff to the excitable crowd of an early twentieth century football match, working-class male leisure proved to be a contentious issue for contemporary observers. For middle-class social reformers from across the political spectrum, the spectacle of popular leisure offered a view of working-class habits, and a means by which lifestyles and behaviour could be assessed. For the mid-Victorians, gingerly stepping into a new mass democratic age, the desire to create a bond between the recently enfranchised male worker and the nation was more important...
From the bawdy audience of a Victorian Penny Gaff to the excitable crowd of an early twentieth century football match, working-class male leisure prov...
