Civilizing the Urban (Studies in Welsh History, 17)

Andy Croll

ISBN 10: 0708316379 / ISBN 13: 9780708316375

Published by University of Wales Press, 2000

About this Item

Early industrial Merthyr is synonymous with the darker side of the British urban experience. This work considers the efforts of dedicated civic "boosters" to civilize the town's public spaces and its inhabitants and shows how this vision of Merthyr depended on the taming of popular culture. Series: Studies in Welsh History S. Num Pages: 330 pages. BIC Classification: 1DBKW; 3JH; HBJD1; HBLW; HBTB; JFCA. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 216 x 138 x 36. Weight in Grams: 454. . 2000. UK ed. Hardcover. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780708316375

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Civilizing the Urban (Studies in Welsh History, 17)
• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0708316379
• ISBN 13: 9780708316375
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Early industrial Merthyr is synonymous with the darker side of the British urban experience. The spectacular rates of urban growth, the acute social unrest and the appallingly high death rates that shocked and horrified many Victorian observers continue to command the attention of historians. In contrast, attempts to construct a ‘civic image’ for the town in the late-Victorian and Edwardian eras have gone unnoticed.

This book considers the efforts of a group of dedicated civic ‘boosters’ to civilize the town’s public spaces and its inhabitants, and it shows how this vision of Merthyr depended on the taming and regulation of popular culture. Streets crowded with respectable choral singers and well-behaved rugby fans were often regarded as proof that civic Merthyr had arrived; the presence of public drunks, pugilists and prostitutes suggested otherwise.

Civilizing the Urban traces elements of the fascinating journey from the ‘urban’ to the ‘civic’ and develops new ways of understanding the often uneasy relationship between popular culture, public space and urban meaning in the context of the nineteenth-century British ‘civic project’.

About the Author

Andy Croll is principal lecturer in history at the University of South Wales.