Adrian Bingham - Böcker

What did British citizens really feel about the political system, their role in it, and the people who represented them? Everyday Politics, Ordinary Lives examines British democracy from below, investigating how electors understood politics and how they viewed its relationship to their lives, from the establishment of a near democracy with the Representation of the People Act 1918 up until the rise of the internet and 24-hour news channels in the early 1990s. It focuses on the everyday political opinions, discussions, and interactions of ordinary British voters in the period, and pays attention to the ways in which women, young people, and minoritized groups related to a political system dominated by men.Adrian Bingham incorporates material from a broad and diverse range of sources, from pioneering social surveys conducted after the First World War, through the mid-century qualitative research of Mass-Observation and early political scientists, up to the data-driven work of the British Election Study and modern pollsters such as Gallup and MORI. The book also draws extensively on the archives of the Conservative and Labour parties, as they sought to understand the attitudes of the voters they were trying to attract, and content from the media, memoirs, diaries, and life-writing. Everyday Politics, Ordinary Lives argues that most people, across the period, felt remote from politics and sceptical of politicians. But this reflected the perception that the world of parliamentary debates and party intrigue was distant, insular, and rather impenetrable, not that people did not care about political issues or have a desire to improve their position. Britain was home to plenty of everyday political thinking and conversation, and the amount and quality of this activity tended to increase and improve over the period as people became better educated, had access to more information through the media, and the power of the democratic ideal grew in strength over the period. The author maps these changing patterns of political support to deeper social and cultural developments, and thereby produce a new and distinctive history of British democracy that challenges some of the simplistic narratives that underpin contemporary political debate.

Journalists often claim that they write the first draft of history, but few historians examine the press in detail when preparing later drafts. This book demonstrates the value of popular newspapers as a historical source by using them to explore the attitudes and identites of inter-war Britain, and in particular the reshaping of femininity and masculinity. It provides a fresh insight into a period of great significance in the making of twentieth century gender identities, when women and men were coming to terms with the upheavals of the Great War, the arrival of democracy, and rapid social change. The book also deepens our understanding of the development of the modern media by showing how newspaper editors, in the fierce competition for readers, developed a template for the popular press that is still influential today.

Family Newspapers? provides the first detailed historical study of the modern popular press's coverage of sex and private life, from the start of the mass newspaper reading boom in 1918 to the triumph of the Sun's sexualised journalism in 1978.In this period, newspapers were at the heart of British popular culture, and Fleet Street's preoccupation with sex meant that the press was a hugely significant source of knowledge and imagery about sexual behaviour, personal relationships, and moral codes. Focusing on changing ideas of what sexual content was deemed 'fit to print', Adrian Bingham reveals how editors negotiated the tension between exploiting public curiosity about sex and ensuring that their journalism remained within the bounds of acceptability for a 'family newspaper'. The study challenges established interpretations of social change by drawing attention to the ways in which the press opened up the public discussion of sexuality before the 'permissiveness' of the 1960s. Exploring the spectacular diversity of the press's sexual content - from advice columns to pin-ups, from court reports to celebrity revelations - Bingham offers a rich and thought-provoking investigation of a media form that has done much to shape the character of modern Britain.

This book explores how print journalism was a powerful and persistent influence on public attitudes to, and memories of, the First World War in a range of participant nations, including Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, the United States and Australia. With contributions from an international group of history, journalism and literary studies scholars, the book identifies and analyses five distinct roles played by the print media: producing and narrating histories of the war or its constituent episodes; serialising and reviewing memoirs or fictional accounts written by participants; reporting and framing the rituals and ceremonies of local and national commemoration; providing a platform for various war-related advocacy groups or campaigns, from veterans’ associations to early Civil Rights movements; and using the war as a lens through which to interpret future conflicts. This innovative collection demonstrates the significance of journalism in shaping the public understanding of the First World War after 1918, and shows how the representations and narratives of the conflict reflected the political and social changes of the post-war decades. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Studies.

This book explores how print journalism was a powerful and persistent influence on public attitudes to, and memories of, the First World War in a range of participant nations, including Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, the United States and Australia. With contributions from an international group of history, journalism and literary studies scholars, the book identifies and analyses five distinct roles played by the print media: producing and narrating histories of the war or its constituent episodes; serialising and reviewing memoirs or fictional accounts written by participants; reporting and framing the rituals and ceremonies of local and national commemoration; providing a platform for various war-related advocacy groups or campaigns, from veterans’ associations to early Civil Rights movements; and using the war as a lens through which to interpret future conflicts. This innovative collection demonstrates the significance of journalism in shaping the public understanding of the First World War after 1918, and shows how the representations and narratives of the conflict reflected the political and social changes of the post-war decades. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Studies.

A definitive account of newspaper and periodical press history across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales covering 1650 to the present dayAt various points over the last 400 years, key political, economic and social processes, have worked to hinder or promote the expansion and dissemination of information across Britain and Ireland via newspapers and periodicals. In a contemporary era characterized by debate on the limits of devolution and the potential of independence we need to assess the roles played by newspapers and periodicals in enabling national and regional identities to emerge, cohere and diversify over time. How can we best identify the most significant of these processes? What were the critical flashpoints in their development? How have they marked the place of the press in civic society? What are the consequences in considering these within the general history of the British and Irish press? This three-volume prestige project addresses these matters, offering a definitive account of newspaper and periodical press activity across Britain and Ireland between 1650 to the present day and addressing questions related to four key research interests: general social/ political history; newspaper and periodical history; cultural history; and technological history.

Offers a definitive history of the British and Irish Press from 1900-2017Captures the cross-regional and transnational dimension of press history in twentieth-century and at the start of twenty first-century Britain and IrelandOffers unique and important reassessments of twentieth-century and contemporary British and Irish press and periodical media within social, cultural, technological, economic and historical contextsProvides a timeline of significant events for cross-reference as well as an extensive bibliography for further researchAt various points over the last 400 years, key political, economic and social processes, have worked to hinder or promote the expansion and dissemination of information across Britain and Ireland via newspapers and periodicals. In a contemporary era characterized by debate on the limits of devolution and the potential of independence we need to assess the roles played by newspapers and periodicals in enabling national and regional identities to emerge, cohere and diversify over time. How can we best identify the most significant of these processes? What were the critical flashpoints in their development? How have they marked the place of the press in civic society? What are the consequences in considering these within the general history of the British and Irish press? This proposed volume in a three volume series will address these matters, offering a definitive account of newspaper and periodical press activity across Britain and Ireland between 1900 and 2017, and addressing questions related to four key research interests: general social/political history; newspaper and periodical history; cultural history; technological history. A further aim is to situate such discussions within the larger framework of communication and media history.

The United Kingdom has been at the heart of global history for centuries – as a conqueror, an engine of international trade, and a symbol of modernity. It was the first industrial nation, the centre of the world’s biggest empire, and the home of an enduring and influential parliamentary democracy. Since 1945, the UK has faced unprecedented challenges as it has come to terms with the loss of great power status, the surrender of its colonial territories, the decline of its staple industries, and growing pressures threatening to tear apart the union holding together England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.In this book, Adrian Bingham guides readers through the key developments in British post-war history to reveal how the nation was shaped by the legacies and lessons of the past. The UK has become a more diverse, pluralistic, and mobile society, but it remains one struggling to come to terms with its changed position in the world, and unable to reach consensus around a vision for the future.

The United Kingdom has been at the heart of global history for centuries – as a conqueror, an engine of international trade, and a symbol of modernity. It was the first industrial nation, the centre of the world’s biggest empire, and the home of an enduring and influential parliamentary democracy. Since 1945, the UK has faced unprecedented challenges as it has come to terms with the loss of great power status, the surrender of its colonial territories, the decline of its staple industries, and growing pressures threatening to tear apart the union holding together England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.In this book, Adrian Bingham guides readers through the key developments in British post-war history to reveal how the nation was shaped by the legacies and lessons of the past. The UK has become a more diverse, pluralistic, and mobile society, but it remains one struggling to come to terms with its changed position in the world, and unable to reach consensus around a vision for the future.