British socialists and the politics of popular culture, 1884-1914

Abstract

The British social movement emerged at the same time that working-class culture was being transformed by new forms of commercial entertainment. This work explores the relationship between the socialist movemement and late Victorian working-class culture. Chris Waters argues that socialists as diverse as Robert Blatchford, Keir Hardie, H.M. Hyndman and William Morris not only feared the political effects of an emerging mass culture but actively strove to develop an alternative culture for British workers. After analyzing socialist attitudes to working-class culture, Waters considers the role of leisure in socialist utopian thought and focuses on socialist attempts to offer workers a new culture. This book aims to relate socialist thought to the broader history of cultural criticism. It will be useful reading for students of cultural studies, the history of the socialist movement and modern British history in general.