The Circus Age: Culture and Society under the American Big Top - Softcover

Davis, Janet M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807853992 ISBN 13: 9780807853993

Verlag: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002

Inhaltsangabe

Book by Davis Janet M

Über diesen Titel

Críticas:

A fascinating, provocative history of a democratic form of public entertainment. ("Publishers Weekly") [A] fascinating, provocative history of a democratic form of public entertainment. ("Publishers Weekly")

Reseña del editor:

A century ago, daily life ground to a halt when the circus rolled into town. Across America, banks closed, schools canceled classes, farmers left their fields, and factories shut down so that everyone could go to the show. In this entertaining and provocative book, Janet Davis links the flowering of the early-twentieth-century American railroad circus to such broader historical developments as the rise of big business, the breakdown of separate spheres for men and women, and the genesis of the United States' overseas empire. In the process, she casts the circus as a powerful force in consolidating the nation's identity as a modern industrial society and world power.

Davis explores the multiple "shows" that took place under the big top, from scripted performances to exhibitions of laborers assembling and tearing down tents to impromptu spectacles of audiences brawling, acrobats falling, and animals rampaging. Turning Victorian notions of gender, race, and nationhood topsy-turvy, the circus brought its vision of a rapidly changing world to spectators--rural as well as urban--across the nation. Even today, Davis contends, the influence of the circus continues to resonate in popular representations of gender, race, and the wider world.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: The University of North Carolina Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0807853992
• ISBN 13: 9780807853993
• Einband: Paperback
• Anzahl der Seiten: 357