Leisure, citizenship and working–class men in Britain, 1850–1940

Leisure, citizenship and working–class men in Britain, 1850–1940 PDF Author: Brad Beaven
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1847793606
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
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 than ever. This trend continued as those in governance perceived that 'good' leisure and citizenship could fend off challenges to social stability such as imperial decline, the mass degenerate city, hooliganism, civic and voter apathy and fascism. Thus, between 1850 and 1945 the issue of male leisure became enmeshed with changing contemporary debates on the encroaching mass society and its implications for good citizenry. Working-class culture has often been depicted as an atomised and fragmented entity lacking any significant cultural contestation. Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary source material, this book powerfully challenges these recent assumptions and places social class centre stage once more. Arguing that there was a remarkable continuity in male working-class culture between 1850 and 1945, Beaven contends that despite changing socio-economic contexts, male working-class culture continued to draw from a tradition of active participation and cultural contestation that was both class and gender exclusive. This lively and readable book draws from fascinating accounts from those who participated in and observed contemporary popular leisure making it of importance to students and teachers of social history, popular culture, urban history, historical geography, historical sociology and cultural studies.

Leisure, citizenship and working–class men in Britain, 1850–1940

Leisure, citizenship and working–class men in Britain, 1850–1940 PDF Author: Brad Beaven
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1847793606
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Get Book Here

Book Description
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 than ever. This trend continued as those in governance perceived that 'good' leisure and citizenship could fend off challenges to social stability such as imperial decline, the mass degenerate city, hooliganism, civic and voter apathy and fascism. Thus, between 1850 and 1945 the issue of male leisure became enmeshed with changing contemporary debates on the encroaching mass society and its implications for good citizenry. Working-class culture has often been depicted as an atomised and fragmented entity lacking any significant cultural contestation. Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary source material, this book powerfully challenges these recent assumptions and places social class centre stage once more. Arguing that there was a remarkable continuity in male working-class culture between 1850 and 1945, Beaven contends that despite changing socio-economic contexts, male working-class culture continued to draw from a tradition of active participation and cultural contestation that was both class and gender exclusive. This lively and readable book draws from fascinating accounts from those who participated in and observed contemporary popular leisure making it of importance to students and teachers of social history, popular culture, urban history, historical geography, historical sociology and cultural studies.

Leisure, Citizenship and Working-class Men in Britain, 1850-1945

Leisure, Citizenship and Working-class Men in Britain, 1850-1945 PDF Author: Brad Beaven
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719060274
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
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 than ever. This trend continued as those in governance perceived that 'good' leisure and citizenship could fend off challenges to social stability such as imperial decline, the mass degenerate city, hooliganism, civic and voter apathy and fascism. Thus, between 1850 and 1945 the issue of male leisure became enmeshed with changing contemporary debates on the encroaching mass society and its implications for good citizenry. Working-class culture has often been depicted as an atomised and fragmented entity lacking any significant cultural contestation. Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary source material, this book powerfully challenges these recent assumptions and places social class centre stage once more. Arguing that there was a remarkable continuity in male working-class culture between 1850 and 1945, Beaven contends that despite changing socio-economic contexts, male working-class culture continued to draw from a tradition of active participation and cultural contestation that was both class and gender exclusive. This lively and readable book draws from fascinating accounts from those who participated in and observed contemporary popular leisure making it of importance to students and teachers of social history, popular culture, urban history, historical geography, historical sociology and cultural studies.

Men and masculinities in modern Britain

Men and masculinities in modern Britain PDF Author: Matt Houlbrook
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526174685
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Men and masculinities provides an engaging, accessible and provocative introduction to histories of masculinity for all readers interested in contemporary gender politics. The book offers a critical overview of ongoing historiographical debates and the historical making of men’s lives and identities and ideas of masculinity between the 1890s and the present day. In setting out a new agenda for the field, it makes an ambitious argument for the importance of writing histories which are present-centred and politically engaged. This means that the book engages head-on with ferocious debates about men’s social position and the status of masculinity in contemporary public life. In establishing a critical genealogy for the proliferation of this crisis talk, it sets out new ways of understanding how men’s lives and ideas of masculinity have changed over time while patriarchy and male power have persisted.

Going to the dogs

Going to the dogs PDF Author: Keith Laybourn
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526114534
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Greyhound racing emerged rapidly in Britain in 1926 but in its early years was subject to rabid institutional middle-class opposition largely because of the legal gambling opportunities it offered to the working class. Though condemned as a dissipate and impoverishing activity, it was, in fact, a significant leisure opportunity for the working class, which cost little for the minority of bettors involved in what was clearly little more than a ‘bit of the flutter’ , This book is the first national study of greyhound racing in Britain from its beginnings, to its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s, and up its long slow decline of the late twentieth century. Much of the study will be defined by the dominating issue of working-class gambling and the bitter opposition to both it and greyhound racing, although the attractions of this ‘American Night Out’ will also be examined.

Not Just Beer and Bingo! a Social History of Working Men's Clubs

Not Just Beer and Bingo! a Social History of Working Men's Clubs PDF Author: Ruth Cherrington
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1477231854
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
In Not Just Beer and Bingo! A Social History of Working Mens Clubs, Ruth Cherrington traces the history of working men's clubs from their mid-19th origins to their current state of declining popularity and numbers. This book is a unique and comprehensive account of a social movement that has provided companionship, education, recreation and a great deal of pleasure to working class communities for over 150 years. All aspects of club life are covered here in a highly readable, often funny, but sometimes poignant manner. At all times, Ruth Cherrington maintains a scholarly approach, drawing upon wide-ranging research and the wealth of information collected from scores of club goers, officials and entertainers from across the country. They tell their own stories throughout this book, from nights out with the kids to seaside outings, the concerts and Christmas parties, the place of women, the popularity of games and gambling and the many charitable roles and activities that clubs are involved in. Ruth Cherrington illustrates throughout the book how clubs were much loved social and community institutions that have always been about much more than beer drinking and bingo playing. They were often central to working class leisure time as well as at the heart of the communities where they were located. She shows how clubs played numerous social and cultural roles, making important contributions to the lives of their members and their families. She does not shy away from tacking the downsides of clubs life and the criticisms that they have sometimes received for some of their policies and practices. The role of the Club and Institute Union (CIU) is also considered here. Established by a Temperance minister in 1862, it helped to nurture the early clubs, fight some battles on their behalf, eventually becoming a nationwide organization that represented the Union of working mens clubs. As clubs now face many challenges and with around half the number that existed during their heyday in the early 1970s, the key reasons for the decline are laid out for the reader to consider. The discussion doesnt end there with an account of the fight back and what club people, from members through to officials and the CIU, are doing to keep their doors open and to adapt to the rapidly changing times we live in. The work concludes by offering some thoughts about their future prospects.

Youth Movements, Citizenship and the English Countryside

Youth Movements, Citizenship and the English Countryside PDF Author: Sian Edwards
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319651579
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
This book explores the significance and meaning of the countryside within mid-twentieth century youth movements. It examines the ways in which the Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, Woodcraft Folk and Young Farmers’ Club organisations employed the countryside as a space within which ‘good citizenship’ – in leisure, work, the home and the community – could be developed. Mid-century youth movements identified the ‘problem’ of modern youth as a predominantly urban and working class issue. They held that the countryside offered an effective antidote to these problems: being a ‘good citizen’ within this context necessitated a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with the rural sphere. Avenues to good citizenship could be found through an enthusiasm for outdoor recreation, the stewardship of the countryside and work on the land. However, models of good citizenship were intrinsically gendered.

Margaret Harkness

Margaret Harkness PDF Author: Flore Janssen
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526123525
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
This collection places the life and work of Margaret Harkness at the heart of a broader consideration of the socially turbulent decades around the turn of the twentieth century in order to illuminate historical forms of women’s political activism.

Sport and the Home Front

Sport and the Home Front PDF Author: Matthew Taylor
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000071367
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Sport and the Home Front contributes in significant and original ways to our understanding of the social and cultural history of the Second World War. It explores the complex and contested treatment of sport in government policy, media representations and the everyday lives of wartime citizens. Acknowledged as a core component of British culture, sport was also frequently criticised, marginalised and downplayed, existing in a constant state of tension between notions of normality and exceptionality, routine and disruption, the everyday and the extraordinary. The author argues that sport played an important, yet hitherto neglected, role in maintaining the morale of the British people and providing a reassuring sense of familiarity at a time of mass anxiety and threat. Through the conflict, sport became increasingly regarded as characteristic of Britishness; a symbol of the ‘ordinary’ everyday lives in defence of which the war was being fought. Utilised to support the welfare of war workers, the entertainment of service personnel at home and abroad and the character formation of schoolchildren and young citizens, sport permeated wartime culture, contributing to new ways in which the British imagined the past, present and future. Using a wide range of personal and public records – from diary writing and club minute books to government archives – this book breaks new ground in both the history of the British home front and the history of sport.

The Making of the Modern British Home

The Making of the Modern British Home PDF Author: Peter Scott
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199677204
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
The Making of the Modern British Home explores the impact of the modern suburban semi-detached house on British family life during the 1920s and 1930s - focusing primarily on working-class households who moved from cramped inner-urban accommodation to new suburban council or owner-occupied housing estates. Migration to suburbia is shown to have initiated a dramatic transformation in lifestyles - from a `traditional' working-class mode of living, based around long-established tightly-knit urban communities, to a recognisably `modern' mode, centred around the home, the nuclear family, and building a better future for the next generation. This process had far-reaching impacts on family life, entailing a change in household priorities to meet the higher costs of suburban living, which in turn impacted on many aspects of household behaviour, including family size. This volume also constitutes a general history of the development of both owner-occupied and municipal suburban housing estates in interwar Britain, including the evolution of housing policy; the housing development process; housing and estate design, lay-outs, and architectural features; marketing owner-occupation and consumer durables to a mass market; furnishing the new suburban home; making ends meet; suburban gardens; social filtering and conflict on the new estates; and problems of 'mis-selling' and 'Jerry building'. Peter Scott integrates the social history of the interwar suburbs with their economic, business, marketing, and architectural/planning histories, demonstrating how these elements interacted to produce a new model of working-class lifestyles and 'respectability' which marked a fundamental break with pre-1914 working-class urban communities.

Being boys

Being boys PDF Author: Melanie Tebbutt
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526130734
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
This original and fresh approach to the emotions of adolescence focuses on the leisure lives of working-class boys and young men in the inter-war years. Being Boys challenges many stereotypes about their behaviour. It offers new perspectives on familiar and important themes in interwar social and cultural history, ranging from the cinema and mass consumption to boys’ clubs, personal advice pages, street cultures, dancing, sexuality, mobility and the body. It draws on many autobiographies and personal accounts and is particularly distinctive in offering an unusual insight into working-class adolescence through the teenage diaries of the author’s father, which are interwoven with the book’s broader analysis of contemporary leisure developments. Being Boys will be of interest to scholars and students across the humanities and social sciences and is also relevant to those teaching and studying in the fields of child development, education, and youth and community studies.