Kim Baston – författare

This volume establishes the historical foundations of the modern circus, tracing its development from pre-Astley entertainments to nineteenth-century British performance culture. Drawing extensively on rare archival materials, it situates circus within a wider entertainment ecology that includes pantomime, music hall, and theatre. The collection reveals intersections between innovation, engineering, and spectacle, highlighting animal training, aerial performance, and creative experimentation as key sites of development. Attention to provincial activity, particularly in Bristol, enriches understanding of regional practice. Scholarly commentary and primary sources together illuminate the social, cultural, and technological forces that shaped circus as a dynamic popular form.

Researching Popular Entertainment is an essential volume for scholars delving into the vibrant yet complex world of popular entertainment.Written by a global network of experts, this book addresses the unique challenges researchers face in this field. The often-dismissed status of popular entertainment, coupled with its reliance on physicality and improvisation over scripted performances, has meant archival and textual sources tend to be more limited than in related theatre and performance disciplines. This scarcity requires historians to find alternative pathways through the available materials to recuperate seemingly insignificant figures and performance forms from our cultural past. This book provides a candid look into the research processes of its authors, highlighting some of the approaches they have adopted to overcome these challenges. It emphasises that reading performance as entertainment is a deliberate methodological choice. Regardless of whether a work is deemed high or low art, legitimate or illegitimate, understanding how it captivates its audience is central to the study of entertainment.Readers will benefit from its in-depth analysis and practical guidance, making it an indispensable resource for anyone studying popular entertainment.