Description
Book SynopsisExplores playful crowds and the pursuit of pleasure in the twentieth century to offer a transatlantic perspective on changing ideas about leisure, class, and mass culture. This book examines the resorts' different fates as Coney Island has become a shadow of its former self while Blackpool continues to lure visitors and offer attractions.
Trade ReviewSocial history at its best... Essential. Choice This book, which is vividly and engagingly written, makes a major contribution to our knowledge and understanding of a cultural phenomenon. The Times Higher Education Supplement ...A fascinating account of the changing nature of the pleasure-seeking crowd in the US and Britain during the twentieth century. -- Brad Beaven, University of Portsmouth Institute of Historical Research (UK) Engaging... fascinating... excellent... a model of collaborative scholarship, this book contributes much to the history of twentieth-century amusements. -- Susan Currell The American Historical Review The Playful Crowd succeeds admirably, both as comparative history and as a study of popular leisure. -- Scott C. Martin Journal of Social History A valuable book for students studying pleasure, leisure, and tourism. -- Auvo Kostiainen Annals of Tourism Research The Playful Crowd does what few studies of leisure have attempted--compare tourism across time and space. -- Thomas A. Chambers, Niagara University Winterthur Portfolio
Table of ContentsPreface Introduction 1. Making the Popular Resort: Coney Island and Blackpool About 1900 2. Industrial Saturnalia and the Playful Crowd 3. The Crowd and its Critics 4. Decline and Reinvention: Coney Island and Blackpool 5. The Disney Challenge 6. "Enrichment through Enjoyment": The Beamish Museum in a Theme Park Age 7. The Crowd Transformed? Notes Index
