Imperialism and Popular Culture

by MacKenzie, John M.

• ISBN13: 9780719018688
• ISBN10: 0719018684
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1987-10-26
• Publisher: MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS

Summary

Popular culture is invariably a vehicle for the dominant ideas of its age. Never was this more true than in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when it reflected the nationalist and imperialist ideologies current throughout Europe. When they were being entertained or educated the British basked in their imperial glory and developed a powerful notion of their own superiority. This book examines the various media through which nationalist ideas were conveyed in late Victorian and Edwardian times--in the theatre, "ethnic" shows, juvenile literature, education, and the iconography of popular art. Several chapters look beyond the first world war when the most popular media, cinema and broadcasting, continued to convey an essentially late nineteenth-century world view, while government agencies like the Empire Marketing Board sought to convince the public of the economic value of empire. Youth organizations, which had propagated imperialist and militarist attitudes before the war, struggled to adapt to the new internationalist climate.

Author Biography

John M. Mackenzie is Professor of Imperial History at the University of Lancaster.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	vi
List of contributors	vii
Introduction	1	(16)
John M. MacKenzie
Patriotism and Empire: Music-Hall entertainment, 1870--1914	17	(32)
Penny Summerfield
`Up Guards and At them!': British imperialism and popular art, 1880--1914	49	(24)
John O. Springhall
Of England, Home, and duty: the image of England in Victorian and Edwardian juvenile fiction	73	(21)
J. S. Bratton
Showbiz imperialism: the Case of Peter Lobengula	94	(19)
Ben Shephard
`The grit of our forefathers': invented traditions, propaganda and imperialism	113	(27)
J. A. Mangan
Boy's Own Empire: feature films and imperialism in the 1930s	140	(25)
Jeffrey Richards
`In touch with the infinite': the BBC and the Empire, 1923-53	165	(27)
John M. MacKenzie
`Bringing the Empire alive': the Empire Marketing Board and imperial propaganda, 1926--33	192	(40)
Stephen Constantine
Citizens of the Empire: Baden-Powell, Scouts and Guides, and an imperial ideal	232	(25)
Allen Warren
Index	257