In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, urbanisation 'revolutionised' English society as much as industrialisation. Central to this urbanising process, and the civic culture it inspired, was the bringing together of people in large numbers - to celebrate, commemorate, vilify or validate. Contemporary observers found the power and potential of urban crowds both awesome and alarming.
They witnessed the capacity of the masses to confer honour and prestige upon a proud city elite or, by turning hostile, to bring civic ruin. Yet this ambivalent relationship between the individual and the crowd, which resonates through not only the nineteenth century but all human history, has remained generally ignored by historians. They have regarded crowds almost exclusively as a riotous, disruptive and protesting force.
This book, which is the first systematic historical study of mass phenomena, challenges such preconceptions and re-defines the place of the crowd in history.
| ISBN: | 9780521302104 |
| Publication date: | 24th November 1988 |
| Author: | Mark Harrison |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 382 pages |
| Series: | Past and Present Publications |
| Genres: |
Urban communities European history History and Archaeology Social and cultural history |
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, urbanisation 'revolutionised' English society as much as industrialisation. Central to this urbanising process, and the civic culture it inspired, was the bringing together of people in large numbers - to celebrate, commemorate, vilify or validate.
Crowds and History features in the following genres: Urban communities, European history, History and Archaeology, Social and cultural history
Paperback, Hardback. Not Available.
Crowds and History was written by Mark Harrison and published by Cambridge University Press
Crowds and History has 382 pages
Yes it is part of Past and Present Publications series