Studies in Popular Culture Dangerous Amusements

Drawing on an extensive range of sources, from newspapers and institutional records to oral histories and autobiography, Dangerous amusements explores the beginnings of a distinct youth culture in the streets and neighbourhood spaces of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain. As far back as the nineteenth century, young people in Britain socialised outside. There is a distinct history in youth culture of couples walking out, groups congregating and people engaged in ‘monkey parades’ in their streets and neighbourhoods. Dangerous amusements explores these sites of leisure and courtship, examining how working-class youth engaged with their environment. Where did young people gather and socialise; how did they negotiate spaces of their own; and what factors affected their ability to do so? Taking 1870 as its starting point, this book offers an examination of young working people’s engagement with their leisure spaces and places, and with those who looked to control and define these spaces in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In approaching the period up to 1939, the book considers the continuities in young people’s experiences and reflects on the development of an increasingly conspicuous youth culture.Drawing on an extensive range of sources, from newspapers and institutional records to oral histories and autobiographies, this book traces the movements of young working-class men and women across urban space. Exploring the relationship between the leisure lives of young people and the spaces in which they operated, Dangerous amusements offers a sensitive reappraisal of working-class youth. It will be essential reading for historians of modern Britain, from the established scholar to student readers and newcomers to the history of childhood and youth. In neighbourhoods and public spaces across Britain, young working people walked out together, congregated in the streets, and paraded up and down on the ‘monkey parades’. The beginnings of a distinct youth culture can be traced to the late nineteenth century, and the street and neighbourhood provided its forum. Dangerous amusements explores these sites of leisure and courtship, examining how young working-class men and women engaged with their environment. Drawing on an extensive range of sources, from newspapers and institutional records to oral histories and autobiography, this book traces the movements of young people across space. Exploring the relationship between the leisure lives of the young working class and urban space, this book offers a sensitive reappraisal of working-class youth and will be essential reading for historians of modern Britain.