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This insightful book offers a timely assessment of the complex
relationship between women and leisure in England, drawing upon
recent feminist theory. Departing from approaches which focus on
particular activities or institutions, it places everyday
experiences at its centre, presenting a wide-ranging and lively
account of changing perceptions, representations and experiences of
leisure across the period 1920-60. It addresses the nature of
leisure within women's lives, examining shifting understandings of
the concept and identifying areas of definitional ambiguity such as
the 'family' holiday, shopping and handicrafts. Focusing upon
experiences of leisure across the life cycle, it provides a
detailed assessment of the particular forms of leisure enjoyed by
women at distinct stages of their lives, including cinema-going,
dancing, socialising and home-based pursuits. The book demonstrates
that experiences and perceptions of leisure were fundamentally
structured along life cycle lines: leisure in youth was often
characterised by freedom and independence whilst leisure in
adulthood became a vehicle for service and duty to others. -- .
Contented housewives, glamorous women, jive-mad teenagers - all are
common figures in popular perceptions of 1950s Britain. But what
more did it mean to be a girl or woman in the fifties? And what are
the implications of this history for understanding post-war
Britain? Women in Fifties Britain explores the lived experience of
girls and women, and the way in which their story has been told.
Crossing boundaries - disciplinary, conceptual and thematic - and
drawing creatively on new and established sources, it extends and
enriches the terrain of women's history. Diverse groups of women
come into view, including farmer's wives, university-educated
women, activist housewives, working mothers, Jewish refugees, girls
'at risk' and private secretaries. Revealing that their private,
public and professional lives were central to reshaping society,
the collection engages with the legacy of World War II, and with
questions about the distinctiveness of the 1950s. Embracing
emotion, labour, gender, class, race, sociability, sexuality and
much more, the authors offer penetrating exploration of established
and new categories of historical analysis. Placing the politics of
gender at the heart of Britain's reconstruction, this engaging and
important collection re-visions 1950s Britain and the women that
made it. This book was originally published as a special issue of
Women's History Review.
Contented housewives, glamorous women, jive-mad teenagers - all are
common figures in popular perceptions of 1950s Britain. But what
more did it mean to be a girl or woman in the fifties? And what are
the implications of this history for understanding post-war
Britain? Women in Fifties Britain explores the lived experience of
girls and women, and the way in which their story has been told.
Crossing boundaries - disciplinary, conceptual and thematic - and
drawing creatively on new and established sources, it extends and
enriches the terrain of women's history. Diverse groups of women
come into view, including farmer's wives, university-educated
women, activist housewives, working mothers, Jewish refugees, girls
'at risk' and private secretaries. Revealing that their private,
public and professional lives were central to reshaping society,
the collection engages with the legacy of World War II, and with
questions about the distinctiveness of the 1950s. Embracing
emotion, labour, gender, class, race, sociability, sexuality and
much more, the authors offer penetrating exploration of established
and new categories of historical analysis. Placing the politics of
gender at the heart of Britain's reconstruction, this engaging and
important collection re-visions 1950s Britain and the women that
made it. This book was originally published as a special issue of
Women's History Review.
'A moving microhistory of working-class girlhood' BBC History
Magazine It is 1937 in a northern mill-town and a class of twelve-
and thirteen-year-old girls are writing about their lives, their
world, and the things that matter to them. They tell of cobbled
streets and crowded homes; the Coronation festivities and holidays
to Blackpool; laughter and fun alongside poverty and hardship. They
are destined for the cotton mill but they dream of being film
stars. Class of '37 uses the writing of these young girls, as
collected by the research organisation Mass Observation, to
rediscover this lost world, transporting readers back in time to a
smoky industrial town in an era before the introduction of a
Welfare State, where once again the clouds of war were beginning to
gather. Woven within this rich, authentic history are the twists
and turns of the girls' lives from childhood to beyond, from their
happiest times to the most heart-breaking of their sorrows. A
compelling social history, this intimate reconstruction of
working-class life in 1930s Britain is a haunting and emotional
account of a bygone age.
LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE ___ 'A moving microhistory of
working-class girlhood' BBC History Magazine ___ It is 1937 in a
northern mill-town and a class of twelve- and thirteen-year-old
girls are writing about their lives, their world, and the things
that matter to them. They tell of cobbled streets and crowded
homes; the Coronation festivities and holidays to Blackpool;
laughter and fun alongside poverty and hardship. They are destined
for the cotton mill but they dream of being film stars. Class of
'37 uses the writing of these young girls, as collected by the
research organisation Mass Observation, to rediscover this lost
world, transporting readers back in time to a smoky industrial town
in an era before the introduction of a Welfare State, where once
again the clouds of war were beginning to gather. Woven within this
rich, authentic history are the twists and turns of the girls'
lives from childhood to beyond, from their happiest times to the
most heart-breaking of their sorrows. A compelling social history,
this intimate reconstruction of working-class life in 1930s Britain
is a haunting and emotional account of a bygone age. ___ Praise for
Class of '37 'A treasure trove of childhood' - i paper 'A
fascinating account' - Bolton News 'We're used to Mass Observation
revealing adult treasures, but to have them from these
irrepressible children is doubly rewarding. An engrossing and
gently heart-breaking insight into this chatter of still lives
before everything changed, and a wonderful rear-view glimpse of
their vanishing world' - Simon Garfield 'Characters [...] shine
brightly from every page' - Daily Mail
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