Leisure and Class in Victorian England. Rational recreation and the contest for control, 1830-1885

Notes:

Seminal study of the emergence of working class leisure, often placed within the town of Bolton, and the influences upon it notably working class culture, middle class activism and the emergent leisure industry. Contents include: ' Popular recreation in the early Victorian town'; 'Rational recreation, voices of improvement'; 'The new leisure world of the mid-Victorians - the expansion of middle-class recreation, its practice and problems'; 'Dispensing recreation to the masses in the new leisure world'; 'Rational recreation in operation - the working men's club movement'; 'Rational recreation and the new athleticism'; 'Rational recreation and the entertainment industry - the case of the Victorian music halls'