Leisure and Cultural Conflict in Twentieth-Century Britain

This collection of essays 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 includes innovative research on a number of topics, including television, cinema, the circus, women's leisure, dance, football and drug culture. It provides an excellent entry to leisure studies and history, while addressing the contributions of other disciplines and exploring key historiographical trends. The chapters aim to emphasise contextualisation to build studies of leisure into broader discussions of social and cultural change in twentieth-century Britain, as well as key moments and transitions in the 'society of leisure'. Three broad topics structure the collection; cultural contestation and social conflict in leisure, regulation and standardisation, and national identity embodied in leisure and popular culture. The book will be useful to students and educators of twentieth-century and British history, as it offers accessible and topical studies that pique historical curiosity. In addition, historians, sociologists and cultural analysts of the twentieth century will find it essential for understanding pleasure and recreation in twentieth-century British society.