| Description |
1 online resource : illustrations |
| Note |
Print version record. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Summary |
We are often told that the Victorians were far less violent than their forebears: over the course of the nineteenth century, violent sports were mostly outlawed, violent crime, including homicide, notably declined, and punishments were hidden from public view within prison walls. They were also much more respectable, and actively sought orderly, uplifting, domestic and refined pastimes. Yet these were the very same people who celebrated the exceptionally violent careers of anti-heroes such as the brutal puppet Punch and the murderous barber Sweeney Todd. By drawing attention to the wide range of gruesome, bloody and confronting amusements patronised by ordinary Londoners this book challenges our understanding of Victorian society and culture. From the turn of the nineteenth century, graphic, yet orderly, 're-enactments' of high level violence flourished in travelling entertainments, penny broadsides, popular theatres, cheap instalment fiction and Sunday newspapers. |
| Contents |
London 1800-1850 : coping with change, expressing resistance -- About town with Mr Punch -- From scaffold culture to the cult of the murderer -- The 'blood-stained stage' revisited -- Selling Sweeney Todd to the masses -- The rise of modern crime reporting -- Epilogue : 1870--the civilizing moment? |
| Subject |
Violence in popular culture -- England -- London -- History -- 19th century.
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Theater -- England -- London -- History -- 19th century.
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Amusements -- England -- London -- History -- 19th century.
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London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century.
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London (England) -- History -- 1800-1950.
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HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain.
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POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Cultural Policy.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture.
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Amusements. (OCoLC)fst00808105
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Manners and customs. (OCoLC)fst01007815
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Theater. (OCoLC)fst01149217
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Violence in popular culture. (OCoLC)fst01167297
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England -- London.
(OCoLC)fst01204271
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| Chronological Term |
1800-1950
|
| Genre/Form |
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Withey, Alun. Physick and the family. Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York, NY : Distributed in the U.S. by Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 9780719085468 (DLC) 2012382493 (OCoLC)724656909 |
| ISBN |
9780719095054 (electronic bk.) |
|
0719095050 (electronic bk.) |
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