The international controversy (highlighted in Britain by the Bulger case) over the relationship between video nasties and crime is one that has a long prior history. Do books, films or magazines create a corrupting environment which encourages crime and moral decay?
Dr. Springhall has written a highly perceptive and entertaining account of how commercial culture in Britain and America has been viewed, since its inception during the Industrial Revolution, as a force likely to undermine national morals. There has been wave after wave of scares: from the Victorian penny gaff theatres and...