Navigation menu
Search
eBook
Entertaining the empire : London music hall and the export of Britishness
Horrall, Andrew
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 282 Pages
The stage entertainments known as music hall emerged in mid-Victorian London just as the British began colonising large parts of the world.Settlers recreated this metropolitan popular culture throughout the empire and in places under foreign control. They erected music halls resembling those at home, imported songs and sketches, performed inamateur shows and watched touring professionals. London originals were rewritten as commentaries on local conditions. This activity transformed music hall into a marker of an exclusionary British identity overseas and made colonies look and sound more like Britain. The result was that settlers separated by vast distances were linked by a shared popular culture. The touring circuits and cultural affinities the Victorians created endure to this day.
Horrall, Andrew
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 282 Pages
The stage entertainments known as music hall emerged in mid-Victorian London just as the British began colonising large parts of the world.Settlers recreated this metropolitan popular culture throughout the empire and in places under foreign control. They erected music halls resembling those at home, imported songs and sketches, performed inamateur shows and watched touring professionals. London originals were rewritten as commentaries on local conditions. This activity transformed music hall into a marker of an exclusionary British identity overseas and made colonies look and sound more like Britain. The result was that settlers separated by vast distances were linked by a shared popular culture. The touring circuits and cultural affinities the Victorians created endure to this day.
eBook
Fashion in theory : historicization, subjectivity and practice
Pecorari, Marco
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 306 Pages
For Spring Summer 2020, Gucci showed a collection questioning identity politics and capitalism. Rather than the usual explanation of the material, shapes or inspirations behind the collection, the press release handed out at the show quoted the philosopher Michel Foucault and questioned the very nature of fashion itself.
Gucci's press release reflects the popularization of critical theory in public discourse and fashion in particular. Philosophers, activists and academics are increasingly recruited to collaborate with luxury brands, and main-stream fashion brands have begun to adopt a discourse about politics and critical thinking using, in their communication, concepts such as "resistance", "gender fluidity", "national identity" or "cultural heritage" without accompanying these discourses with any form of political engagement or activism.
Based on this intellectualization of the fashion industry and the recent proliferation of critical theory in fashion education, this book stresses the importance of rethinking the relationship between fashion and theory. Drawing together eleven chapters and four conversations by and with philosophers, cultural theorists, historians, anthropologists, activists, performers and designers, the book investigates both the theorization of fashion and the ways in which fashion offers a useful landscape in understanding the current state of critical theory today.
Pecorari, Marco
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 306 Pages
For Spring Summer 2020, Gucci showed a collection questioning identity politics and capitalism. Rather than the usual explanation of the material, shapes or inspirations behind the collection, the press release handed out at the show quoted the philosopher Michel Foucault and questioned the very nature of fashion itself.
Gucci's press release reflects the popularization of critical theory in public discourse and fashion in particular. Philosophers, activists and academics are increasingly recruited to collaborate with luxury brands, and main-stream fashion brands have begun to adopt a discourse about politics and critical thinking using, in their communication, concepts such as "resistance", "gender fluidity", "national identity" or "cultural heritage" without accompanying these discourses with any form of political engagement or activism.
Based on this intellectualization of the fashion industry and the recent proliferation of critical theory in fashion education, this book stresses the importance of rethinking the relationship between fashion and theory. Drawing together eleven chapters and four conversations by and with philosophers, cultural theorists, historians, anthropologists, activists, performers and designers, the book investigates both the theorization of fashion and the ways in which fashion offers a useful landscape in understanding the current state of critical theory today.
eBook
Price, Bronwen; Hinds, Hilary
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 236 Pages
This volume explores the disruptive effects of militarism, war and social unrest in early modern drama. Engaging with Simon Barker's seminal work on dramatic representations of war and militarism, contributors highlight what often lies hidden beneath the surface of martial narratives, treating them as formative interventions in contemporary discourses, whether in justifying war, excluding dissident voices or shaping cultural identities. Discussions include new examinations of militarism, the figure of the soldier and early modern theories of war in Shakespearean tragedy, history and comedy, alongside antimasque and dramatic satire by lesser-known playwrights. The essays investigate how ideas of war underpin emerging concepts of gender, leadership, marriage and the family, as well as the continuing mobilisation of Shakespearean drama in the context of modern armed conflict.
Price, Bronwen; Hinds, Hilary
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 236 Pages
This volume explores the disruptive effects of militarism, war and social unrest in early modern drama. Engaging with Simon Barker's seminal work on dramatic representations of war and militarism, contributors highlight what often lies hidden beneath the surface of martial narratives, treating them as formative interventions in contemporary discourses, whether in justifying war, excluding dissident voices or shaping cultural identities. Discussions include new examinations of militarism, the figure of the soldier and early modern theories of war in Shakespearean tragedy, history and comedy, alongside antimasque and dramatic satire by lesser-known playwrights. The essays investigate how ideas of war underpin emerging concepts of gender, leadership, marriage and the family, as well as the continuing mobilisation of Shakespearean drama in the context of modern armed conflict.
eBook
Songs of seven dials : an intimate history of 1920s and 1930s London
Houlbrook, Matt
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 313 Pages
The untold story of a remarkable neighbourhood and the battle to define modern London.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Seven Dials was one of London's most diverse neighbourhoods, home to migrant and working-class communities, bohemian clubs and cafes. But business leaders and city planners had other ideas.
Beginning with a rancorous libel trial of 1927, in which a Sierra Leonean café owner and his wife confronted the racist newspaper that destroyed their business, Matt Houlbrook reveals the surprising history of this remarkable neighbourhood. He traces how tensions that simmered on the streets and finally exploded in court betrayed the politics of urban 'improvement' and the 'colour bar'. Underlying the trial was a series of troubling questions that would define Britain in the twentieth century - about race, class and the boundaries of belonging, gentrification and the kind of city London would become.
Imaginative, powerful and deeply moving, Songs of Seven Dials is an important new history of London in the 1920s and 1930s.
Houlbrook, Matt
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 313 Pages
The untold story of a remarkable neighbourhood and the battle to define modern London.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Seven Dials was one of London's most diverse neighbourhoods, home to migrant and working-class communities, bohemian clubs and cafes. But business leaders and city planners had other ideas.
Beginning with a rancorous libel trial of 1927, in which a Sierra Leonean café owner and his wife confronted the racist newspaper that destroyed their business, Matt Houlbrook reveals the surprising history of this remarkable neighbourhood. He traces how tensions that simmered on the streets and finally exploded in court betrayed the politics of urban 'improvement' and the 'colour bar'. Underlying the trial was a series of troubling questions that would define Britain in the twentieth century - about race, class and the boundaries of belonging, gentrification and the kind of city London would become.
Imaginative, powerful and deeply moving, Songs of Seven Dials is an important new history of London in the 1920s and 1930s.
eBook
Courting disaster : reading between the lines of the regency novel
McGee, Zoë
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 334 Pages
What do #MeToo and Jane Austen have in common? More than you might think.
Ever since the novel was invented, women have used it as a platform for sharing ideas about sexual consent. Dr Zoë McGee reveals how Jane Austen, Frances Burney and their now-overlooked contemporaries used their stories to try to change society's mind about rape culture - and to reassure survivors they were not alone.
Courting Disaster takes a timely deep-dive into a series of classic novels, comparing them with both historic court records and current events to show that our arguments about consent are not a new phenomenon. With the wit and wryness of a courtship novel, McGee reads between the lines to unveil a quiet feminist movement that still resonates today. Because every novel about marriage is also a novel about consent.
In an era that's clamouring for a return to the values of the past, Courting Disaster asks what that would really mean, and whether anyone actually liked it back then anyway.
McGee, Zoë
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 334 Pages
What do #MeToo and Jane Austen have in common? More than you might think.
Ever since the novel was invented, women have used it as a platform for sharing ideas about sexual consent. Dr Zoë McGee reveals how Jane Austen, Frances Burney and their now-overlooked contemporaries used their stories to try to change society's mind about rape culture - and to reassure survivors they were not alone.
Courting Disaster takes a timely deep-dive into a series of classic novels, comparing them with both historic court records and current events to show that our arguments about consent are not a new phenomenon. With the wit and wryness of a courtship novel, McGee reads between the lines to unveil a quiet feminist movement that still resonates today. Because every novel about marriage is also a novel about consent.
In an era that's clamouring for a return to the values of the past, Courting Disaster asks what that would really mean, and whether anyone actually liked it back then anyway.
eBook
Murky water : challenging an unsustainable system
Calafati, Luca; Froud, Julie; Haslam, Colin; Johal, Sukhdev; Williams, Karel
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 348 Pages
Essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of our most vital resource.
Our water system is a mess. Rising bills and rivers full of sewage grab the headlines, but the greater threat is climate crisis, bringing increased drought and flooding.
This book exposes the many problems with our unsustainable water system. Unfair charges limit spending on infrastructure, while financial extraction has turned the water companies into debt-burdened zombies in an increasingly fragmented system.
Reforming regulation and tinkering with tariffs will not be enough, and public ownership is just the first step. Murky water shows that the system can only be made sustainable through a radical overhaul of how it is owned, managed, funded and planned. We need a new kind of water management, with national and catchment planning and coordinated action by landowners, local authorities and water companies.
Westminster and Whitehall currently stand in the way. To overcome their resistance and secure a sustainable future, we must ignite a social movement capable of challenging power.
Calafati, Luca; Froud, Julie; Haslam, Colin; Johal, Sukhdev; Williams, Karel
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 348 Pages
Essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of our most vital resource.
Our water system is a mess. Rising bills and rivers full of sewage grab the headlines, but the greater threat is climate crisis, bringing increased drought and flooding.
This book exposes the many problems with our unsustainable water system. Unfair charges limit spending on infrastructure, while financial extraction has turned the water companies into debt-burdened zombies in an increasingly fragmented system.
Reforming regulation and tinkering with tariffs will not be enough, and public ownership is just the first step. Murky water shows that the system can only be made sustainable through a radical overhaul of how it is owned, managed, funded and planned. We need a new kind of water management, with national and catchment planning and coordinated action by landowners, local authorities and water companies.
Westminster and Whitehall currently stand in the way. To overcome their resistance and secure a sustainable future, we must ignite a social movement capable of challenging power.
eBook
Electric wind : an energy history of modern Britain
Dudley, Marianna
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 186 Pages
A cutting-edge history of wind power in Britain.
There are turbines on the horizon. The blades whirl with metronomic rhythm. With each rotation, wind is transformed into electricity. An energy revolution is underway.
Electric wind rewinds to the beginning to explore the rise of wind energy in modern Britain. From the industrial revolution to the aftermath of war, through energy crises and the changing politics of the late twentieth century, we see how energy has shaped a nation - and how a nation is reflected and refracted through energy. Boldly charting Britain through its wildest, windiest places, this book takes us to the edges of land and beyond to think deeply about the role of nature in politics, science and technology. Visionaries and hippies join engineers and entrepreneurs. Traditions and local cultures meet infrastructure and industry in this captivating history.
At a time when action on carbon emissions is urgent, Electric wind offers examples, ideas and stories to fuel change going forwards. This book is an essential read for anyone interested in nature, climate change, landscape and the making of modern Britain.
Dudley, Marianna
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 186 Pages
A cutting-edge history of wind power in Britain.
There are turbines on the horizon. The blades whirl with metronomic rhythm. With each rotation, wind is transformed into electricity. An energy revolution is underway.
Electric wind rewinds to the beginning to explore the rise of wind energy in modern Britain. From the industrial revolution to the aftermath of war, through energy crises and the changing politics of the late twentieth century, we see how energy has shaped a nation - and how a nation is reflected and refracted through energy. Boldly charting Britain through its wildest, windiest places, this book takes us to the edges of land and beyond to think deeply about the role of nature in politics, science and technology. Visionaries and hippies join engineers and entrepreneurs. Traditions and local cultures meet infrastructure and industry in this captivating history.
At a time when action on carbon emissions is urgent, Electric wind offers examples, ideas and stories to fuel change going forwards. This book is an essential read for anyone interested in nature, climate change, landscape and the making of modern Britain.
eBook
Drifting North : finding a sustainable future in Scotland’s past
Hinde, Dominic
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 221 Pages
Past and future collide in this engaging journey through climate change, fossil capitalism and the struggle for a sustainable world.
Scotland's history and future are entangled with climate change and the story of the modern world. This small country on the fringes of northern Europe pioneered fossil capitalism and played a key role in its spread across the planet. It is a living museum of the crisis of the west, of deindustrialisation, stagnation and the struggle to build a better future from the ashes.
Journalist and sociologist Dominic Hinde travels from the treeless Highlands to the lowland cities, struggling to balance memories with aspiration. Through this journey he finds that his own sensory turmoil, shaped by recovery from a near fatal accident, mirrors the disarray of the fossil fuel transition - an uncertain passage between what was and what must be.
Part memoir, part environmental history, part travelogue, this is a compelling narrative of connections - to place, energy and the possibility of renewal. Through the lens of one country, it asks a vital question: can the lessons of the past help us build a more sustainable future?
Hinde, Dominic
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 221 Pages
Past and future collide in this engaging journey through climate change, fossil capitalism and the struggle for a sustainable world.
Scotland's history and future are entangled with climate change and the story of the modern world. This small country on the fringes of northern Europe pioneered fossil capitalism and played a key role in its spread across the planet. It is a living museum of the crisis of the west, of deindustrialisation, stagnation and the struggle to build a better future from the ashes.
Journalist and sociologist Dominic Hinde travels from the treeless Highlands to the lowland cities, struggling to balance memories with aspiration. Through this journey he finds that his own sensory turmoil, shaped by recovery from a near fatal accident, mirrors the disarray of the fossil fuel transition - an uncertain passage between what was and what must be.
Part memoir, part environmental history, part travelogue, this is a compelling narrative of connections - to place, energy and the possibility of renewal. Through the lens of one country, it asks a vital question: can the lessons of the past help us build a more sustainable future?
eBook
Reimagining business schools for the 21st century : alliance manchester business school
McPhail, Kenneth; Pendrill, James
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 232 Pages
To mark its 60th anniversary, Alliance Manchester Business School is publishing a collection of thought-provoking essays co-authored by eminent AMBS academics and business leaders outlining how business schools can play a significant role in confronting the global challenges of today. It also looks at how the School can equip the next generation of business leaders with the skills they need to embrace these challenges, and outlines ideas for policy development.
The blueprint deliberately reaches out to the wider public, informing public and political debate on the role of business in both the causes and solutions to the world's biggest challenges, and reimagining the role of business in society. It also outlines how business and management research cannot just help address grand challenges such as climate change and regional inequalities, but also generate economic growth, inform policy development, and define business thinking.
McPhail, Kenneth; Pendrill, James
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 232 Pages
To mark its 60th anniversary, Alliance Manchester Business School is publishing a collection of thought-provoking essays co-authored by eminent AMBS academics and business leaders outlining how business schools can play a significant role in confronting the global challenges of today. It also looks at how the School can equip the next generation of business leaders with the skills they need to embrace these challenges, and outlines ideas for policy development.
The blueprint deliberately reaches out to the wider public, informing public and political debate on the role of business in both the causes and solutions to the world's biggest challenges, and reimagining the role of business in society. It also outlines how business and management research cannot just help address grand challenges such as climate change and regional inequalities, but also generate economic growth, inform policy development, and define business thinking.
eBook
Purcell, Stephen; Ormsby, Robert (Series editors)
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 357 Pages
A history of Shakespeare's play in performance, from John Dryden's Restoration adaptation to the rediscovery of the play in the twentieth century. What made this play so relevant to audiences who had lived through the horrors of two world wars and the rise of fascism? Why did it speak so directly to the 'angry young men' of the post-war generation and to the countercultural movements of the 1960s? This book investigates the many ways in which modern directors and actors have found their own world reflected in the play, from anti-war protests and the sexual revolution to feminism and postcolonialism. In doing so, it explores the play's own complexity and its refusal to give easy answers.
eBook
Purcell, Stephen; Ormsby, Robert (Series editors)
Manchester University Press
, 2025
; English
; 357 Pages
A history of Shakespeare's play in performance, from John Dryden's Restoration adaptation to the rediscovery of the play in the twentieth century. What made this play so relevant to audiences who had lived through the horrors of two world wars and the rise of fascism? Why did it speak so directly to the 'angry young men' of the post-war generation and to the countercultural movements of the 1960s? This book investigates the many ways in which modern directors and actors have found their own world reflected in the play, from anti-war protests and the sexual revolution to feminism and postcolonialism. In doing so, it explores the play's own complexity and its refusal to give easy answers.
