Contemporaries of the 1930s frequently argued that popular culture was escapist tosh, responsible for the country's decline and the cause of society's cultural debasement For them, and for many histor
During the Second World War, the popularity and importance of the cinema in Britain was at its peak. In this groundbreaking book, Richard Farmer provides a social and cultural history of cinemas and c
Focusing on advertising's relationship to the mass market housewife, Hard Sell shows how advertising promoted new standards of material comfort in the selling of a range of everyday consumer goods and
This book traces the history of the relationship between work and leisure, from the 'leisure preference' of male workers in the eighteenth century, through the increase in working hours in the later e
Cricket and Broadcasting explores how the significance of radio and television to cricket in England has grown since the beginnings of broadcasting. Since the Second World War cricket has been increas
The Experience of Suburban Modernity looks at the history of the London suburbs in the interwar years. It shows that, contrary to those accounts that portray suburbia as static and boring, these subur
This collection of articles addresses research trends in the history of British leisure while also presenting a wide range of articles on cultural conflict and leisure in the twentieth century. It inc
The super hero has been the staple of the modern comic book since the late 1930s. The phenomenally successful movies "Superman" and "Batman" have made these two comic book super heroes as familiar wor
Amateur film: Meaning and Practice 1927–77 plunges readers into the world of home movie making and reveals that behind popular perceptions of cliched family scenes shakily shot at home or by the sea,
This collection of essays examines the history of urban leisure cultures in Europe in the transition from the early modern to the modern period. The volume brings together research on a wide variety o
Southwest literary humor and Yiddish humor collided in the ever-popular comic strip "Li'l Abner," From 1936 to 1977, when it ceased publication, this comic strip entertained, annoyed
This book is the story of two holiday camp chains established in the 1930s that provided thousands with packaged pleasure. Warner and Butlin’s commercial camps emerged at the intersection of cultural
When Art Spiegelman's Maus-a two-part graphic novel about the Holocaust-won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992, comics scholarship grew increasingly popular and notable. The rise of "serious" comics has generat
With essays by Jan Baetens, David A. Berona, Frank L. Cioffi, N. C. Christopher Couch, Robert C. Harvey, Gene Kannenberg, Jr., Catherine Khordoc, David Kunzle, Marion D. Perret, and Todd Taylor In o
This well focused and perceptive analysis of a phenomenon in our popular culture--the new respectability of the comic book form--argues that the comics medium has a productive tradition of telling tru
The content of comic books has been governed by an industry self-regulatory code adopted by publishers in 1954 in response to public and governmental pressure.This book, the first full-length study o
Here is a perspective on contemporary country music's stars, promoters, and fans. It shows how this vibrant culture evolved from rustic radio programs based in the American South to become an interna
