From Silent Screen to Multi-screen: A History of Cinema Exhibition in Britain since 1896. By Stuart Hanson/The British Musical Film. By John Mundy.

ABSTRACT

This article explores the political, economic, media and social reactions to the Sex Pistols' Anarchy Tour of December 1976. A critical reading of the sociological concept of ‘moral panic’ is used to examine the ways in which responses to the Sex Pistols were related to the notion of post-war decline, immorality, delinquent youth and the changing nature of the British working class. The responses to the Anarchy Tour constitute a further episode in the cycle of ‘moral panics' that emerged in British society in connection with the development of youth culture, juvenile delinquency and popular music. The exploration that follows posits the view that although ‘moral panic’ is useful for understanding particular aspects of popular music, it also conceals the complexity of the differing responses of political/social groups to the appearance of such phenomena. The article also forms a critique of recent revisionist characterizations of Britain in the 1970s. The ‘moral panic’ surrounding the Sex Pistols was in part ‘socially constructed’ by the media, yet reactions by trade unionists, students, feminists and socialists show that concerns about British society in 1976 were not confined to religious pressure groups, conservative media commentators and political elites.     

Desire: A History of European Sexuality. By Anna Clark/Sexuality in World History. By Peter N. Stearns

ABSTRACT

The present article uses Nell Dunn's Up the Junction (1963) to explore class, gender and the city in the 1960s. It focuses on three elements: the book's representation of post-war, urban working-class identity; the place of gender and sexuality within that representation; and, finally, Nell Dunn's own position as a middle-class observer. It argues for the continuing relevance and dynamism of class as a social referent in post-war, ‘affluent’ Britain. The article also explores the meaning of ‘slumming’ in the context of the mid-twentiethcentury city, against the background of ‘affluence’ and the emergence of the ‘permissive society’. What becomes particularly apparent in both contexts is the importance of femininity and female sexuality in the representation of mid-twentieth-century London, whether in terms of the portrayal of working-class women or the position of the middle-class author.     

Time and the Shape of History. By Penelope J.

ABSTRACT

In the interwar period, women formed an ever-growing share of the press market. They were an increasingly important target for advertisers, and newspapers were intent on securing the maximum number of women readers. The press turned its spotlight on female politicians in an attempt to attract women readers. Some politicians, such as the Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson, collaborated with the press to increase their media exposure and promote an image of themselves as political ‘celebrities'. In so doing, they simultaneously perpetuated and destabilized assumptions about women as frivolous, superficial and uninterested in serious political debate. Wilkinson was ultimately able to turn her celebrity to political advantage, using the press as a pulpit to expound her progressive political agenda. However, her successful manipulation of her public platform should not obscure the gendered assumptions behind the press coverage that helped to propel her to political stardom.     

Conceit and Capacities of the Vulgar Sort: The Social History of English as a Language of Politics

The growth of England from Norman-Angevin colony to imperial power began with the social development of a national community that conducted its arguments in English. In this sense vernacularization was the constituting process of English history. This article connects the history of language to constitutional history, and affirms recent calls for an approach that transcends conventional boundaries between late medieval and early modern periods, and between intellectual, cultural, social, demographic, economic, political and constitutional histories. Vernacularization is seen as a movement from below. It is linked in various ways to traditions and customs of resistance and rebellion that are seen as having shaped the history of England from the thirteenth century to 1649.