For the authorities in medieval Europe, both secular and ecclesiastical, dissent struck at the roots of an ordered, settled world. To allow a single heretic to escape just punishment would, it was believed, result in the decay and dissolution of the whole structure of society. So dissent was to be crushed - initially by reason and argument, but before long with increasing savagery: by torture and imprisonment, fire and the sword. In examining the persecuted lives of heretics, witches, Jews, lepers and homosexuals, Jeffrey Richards has uncovered a common motive for their sufferings: sexual...
For the authorities in medieval Europe, both secular and ecclesiastical, dissent struck at the roots of an ordered, settled world. To allow a single h...
The period between the two world wars is often named ""the golden age of the cinema"" in Britain. This definitive and entertaining book on the cinema and cinema-goers of the era is herewith reissued with a new Introduction.
Jeffrey Richards, described by Philip French as ""a shrewd critic, a compulsive moviegoer, and a professional historian,"" tells the absorbing story of the cinema during the decade that produced Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers, the musicals of Jessie Matthews and Alexander Korda's epics. He examines the role of going to the pictures in people's lives during a tough...
The period between the two world wars is often named ""the golden age of the cinema"" in Britain. This definitive and entertaining book on the cine...
Of the five epic films interpreting the sinking of the Titanic, the docu-drama A Night to Remember (1958) is the definitive version. Jeffrey Richards' remarkable book examines the film's place in the continuing generation of Titanic mythology. He analyzes the film, unravels its production history and reception, and compares it with the other Titanic films, notably James Cameron's recent blockbuster Titanic.
Of the five epic films interpreting the sinking of the Titanic, the docu-drama A Night to Remember (1958) is the definitive version. Jeffrey Ri...
Queen Victoria and her family loved the pantomime, so did her subjects of all classes. The English Pantomime is one of the most popular, least analysed of all theatrical forms. It's been the festive mainstay of the English stage since the eighteenth century, and it has survived by its ability to evolve. This continual evolution is traced by Jeffrey Richards in the first history of panto through its 'Golden Age' in Victorian England. He explores the spectacle, the slapstick, and the talent for subversion that nineteenth-century pantomime had - and still has in different ways. His story,...
Queen Victoria and her family loved the pantomime, so did her subjects of all classes. The English Pantomime is one of the most popular, least ana...
Gregory the Great, whose reign spanned the years between 590 and 604 A.D., was one of the most remarkable figures of the early medieval Papacy. Aristocrat, administrator, teacher and scholar, he ascended the throne of St Peter at a time of acute crisis for the Roman Church.
Consul of God, first published in 1980, revises the traditional picture of Pope Gregory. It examines how he organised the central administration of the Papacy and his unremitting war on heresy and schism. Gregory also pioneered a new pastoral tradition in learning, promoted monasticism, and trained the...
Gregory the Great, whose reign spanned the years between 590 and 604 A.D., was one of the most remarkable figures of the early medieval Papacy. Ari...
There has been a tendency to the view the history of the early medieval papacy predominantly in ideological terms, which has resulted in the over-exaggeration of the idea of the papal monarchy. In this study, first published in 1979, Jeffrey Richards questions this view, arguing that whilst the papacy s power and responsibility grew during the period under discussion, it did so by a series of historical accidents rather than a coherent radical design.
The title redresses the imbalance implicit in the monarchical interpretation, and emphasizes other important political,...
There has been a tendency to the view the history of the early medieval papacy predominantly in ideological terms, which has resulted in the over-e...
Film is an important source of social history, as well as having been a popular art form from the early twentieth century. This study shows how a society, consciously or unconsciously, is mirrored in its cinema. It considers the role of the cinema in dramatizing popular beliefs and myths, and takes three case studies - American populism, British imperialism, German Nazism - to explain how a nation's pressures, tensions and hopes come through in its films. Examining the American cinema is accomplished by analysing the careers of three great directors, John Ford, Frank Capra and Leo McCarey,...
Film is an important source of social history, as well as having been a popular art form from the early twentieth century. This study shows how a s...
"This collection brings together studies of popular performance and politics across the nineteenth century, offering a fresh perspective from an archivally grounded research base. It works with the concept that politics is performative and performance is political. The book is organised into three parts in dialogue regarding specific approaches to popular performance and politics. Part I offers a series of conceptual studies using popular culture as an analytical category for social and political history. Part II explores the ways that performance represents and constructs contemporary...
"This collection brings together studies of popular performance and politics across the nineteenth century, offering a fresh perspective from an archi...
