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.

Brett Bebber is Assistant Professor of History at Old Dominion University
Allison Abra is Visiting Assistant Professor at Trent University
Brad Beaven is Principal Lecturer in Social History at the University of Portsmouth
Kelly Boyd is currently Senior Fellow at the Institute for Historical Research, London
Sandra Dawson is currently Instructor of History at Northern Illinois University
Cecile Doustaly is a Lecturer in British Studies and member of the CICC (Civilisations et Identites Culturelles Comparees des Societes Europeennes et Occidentales ) at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, Greater Paris (Contributions by)
Jeffrey Hill is professor of history at De Montfort University and the Director of the International Centre for Sport History and Culture
Chad Martin is Assistant Professor of History at Indianapolis University