Popular culture in London c. 1890-1918 : the transformation of entertainment /

Students seeking information about London music halls and other popular entertainments before and during the Great War will benefit greatly from this latest contribution to the publisher's valuable "Studies in Popular Culture" series. Horrall (National Archives of Canada) is concerned with an essential component of popular culture in these years: topicality or "up-to-dateness." Impresarios and performers perpetually shifted their acts to reflect the latest public crazes and preoccupations. These included those dramatic innovations in transportation--cycling, the automobile, and air travel--that gripped the late Victorian and Edwardian imagination. Music hall entertainment was attuned, above all, to Londoners' obsession with football, boxing, and cricket. With the coming of war, many of these expressions of popular culture were adapted to trench culture and troop entertainments. Though it lacks an explicit theoretical focus and its conclusions are not particularly challenging, the book nevertheless represents a worthy contribution to the history of British popular culture, particularly during WW I. Recommended for general readers, undergraduate and graduate students, and professionals. G. Owens Huron University College