This volume brings together research on retailing, shopping and urban space; themes that have attracted wide interest in recent decades. The authors argue that the 'modernity' of the nineteenth century is often over-emphasised at the expense of recognising earlier innovation.

A Cultural History of Leisure presents historians, and scholars and students of related fields, with the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the cultural history of leisure from ancient times to modernity. With six highly illustrated volumes covering 2500 years, this is the definitive reference work on the subject, comprising: Volume 1: A Cultural History of Leisure in Antiquity (500BC-500AD) Volume 2: A Cultural History of Leisure in the Medieval Age (500-1450) Volume 3: A Cultural History of Leisure in the Renaissance (1450-1650) Volume 4: A Cultural History of Leisure in the Age of Enlightenment (1650-1800) Volume 5: A Cultural History of Leisure in the Age of Empire (1800-1920) Volume 6: A Cultural History of Leisure in the Modern Age (1920-2000+) Each volume adopts the same thematic structure, covering: the idea of leisure; the performing arts and their audiences; the cerebral arts and their publics; sports and games; holydays, holidays and tourism; the world of conviviality; the world of goods; the world of nature and representations of leisure, enabling readers to trace one theme throughout history, as well as gaining a thorough overview of each individual period. The Cultural Histories Series A Cultural History of Leisure is part of the Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available both as printed hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible reference for their shelves, or as part of a fully searchable digital library available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access (see bloomsburyculturalhistory.com).

This collection of essays examines the history of urban leisure cultures in Europe during the transition from the early modern to the modern period. Bringing together research on a wide variety of activities - from the theatre and art exhibitions to spas, seaside resorts and games - it develops a new scholarly agenda for the history of leisure, focusing on the complex processes of cultural transfer that transformed urban leisure culture from the British Isles to the Ottoman Empire. How did new models of urban leisure pastimes travel throughout Europe? Who were the main agents of cultural innovation, appropriation and adaptation? How did the increasingly entangled character of European urban leisure culture impact upon the ways men and women from various classes identified with their social, cultural or (proto-)national communities? These are some of the questions explored by this accessible and wide-ranging collection, which looks at leisure from a long-term, interdisciplinary and transnational perspective.

This volume brings together research on retailing, shopping and urban space; themes that have attracted wide interest in recent decades. The authors argue that the 'modernity' of the nineteenth century is often over-emphasised at the expense of recognising earlier innovation.