Douglas A. Feldman (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034317
- eISBN:
- 9780813039312
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034317.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
There are approximately seven million adult gay and bisexual men in the United States and 120 million adult gay and bisexual men globally. This book explores the cultural dimensions of AIDS among men ...
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There are approximately seven million adult gay and bisexual men in the United States and 120 million adult gay and bisexual men globally. This book explores the cultural dimensions of AIDS among men who have sex with men (MSM). The traditional emphasis in HIV/AIDS research within gay communities has focused on sexual behavior and psychological issues. Yet to better understand the social and cultural dimensions of the disease, and to halt the spread of HIV infection, it is essential to recognize and understand the culture of MSM. Cultural anthropologists, unquestionably, are in a unique position to achieve this understanding. The editor has gathered a diverse group of experts to contribute to this collection, and the volume features a wealth of scholarly data unavailable elsewhere.Less
There are approximately seven million adult gay and bisexual men in the United States and 120 million adult gay and bisexual men globally. This book explores the cultural dimensions of AIDS among men who have sex with men (MSM). The traditional emphasis in HIV/AIDS research within gay communities has focused on sexual behavior and psychological issues. Yet to better understand the social and cultural dimensions of the disease, and to halt the spread of HIV infection, it is essential to recognize and understand the culture of MSM. Cultural anthropologists, unquestionably, are in a unique position to achieve this understanding. The editor has gathered a diverse group of experts to contribute to this collection, and the volume features a wealth of scholarly data unavailable elsewhere.
Michaela Caroline Benson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719082498
- eISBN:
- 9781781701843
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719082498.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
This is a study of how lifestyle choices intersect with migration, and how this relationship frames and shapes post-migration lives. It presents a conceptual framework for understanding ...
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This is a study of how lifestyle choices intersect with migration, and how this relationship frames and shapes post-migration lives. It presents a conceptual framework for understanding post-migration lives that incorporates culturally specific imaginings, lived experiences, individual life histories, and personal circumstances. Through an ethnographic lens incorporating in-depth interviews, participant observation, life and migration histories, this monograph reveals the complex process by which migrants negotiate and make meaningful their lives following migration. By promoting their own ideologies and lifestyle choices relative to those of others, British migrants in rural France reinforce their position as members of the British middle class, but also take authorship of their lives in a way not possible before migration. This is evident in the pursuit of a better life that initially motivated migration and continues to characterise post-migration lives. As the book argues, this ongoing quest is both reflective of wider ideologies about living, particularly the desire for authentic living, and subtle processes of social distinction. In these respects, the book provides an empirical example of the relationship between the pursuit of authenticity and middle-class identification practices.Less
This is a study of how lifestyle choices intersect with migration, and how this relationship frames and shapes post-migration lives. It presents a conceptual framework for understanding post-migration lives that incorporates culturally specific imaginings, lived experiences, individual life histories, and personal circumstances. Through an ethnographic lens incorporating in-depth interviews, participant observation, life and migration histories, this monograph reveals the complex process by which migrants negotiate and make meaningful their lives following migration. By promoting their own ideologies and lifestyle choices relative to those of others, British migrants in rural France reinforce their position as members of the British middle class, but also take authorship of their lives in a way not possible before migration. This is evident in the pursuit of a better life that initially motivated migration and continues to characterise post-migration lives. As the book argues, this ongoing quest is both reflective of wider ideologies about living, particularly the desire for authentic living, and subtle processes of social distinction. In these respects, the book provides an empirical example of the relationship between the pursuit of authenticity and middle-class identification practices.
Josephine Metcalf
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617032813
- eISBN:
- 9781617032820
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617032813.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
The publication in 1993 of Sanyika Shakur’s Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member generated a huge amount of excitement in literary circles — New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani ...
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The publication in 1993 of Sanyika Shakur’s Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member generated a huge amount of excitement in literary circles — New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani deemed it a “shocking and galvanic book” — and set off a new publishing trend of gang memoirs in the 1990s. The memoirs showcased tales of violent confrontation and territorial belonging but also offered many of the first journalistic and autobiographical accounts of the much-mythologized gang subculture. This book focuses on three of these memoirs — Shakur’s; Luis J. Rodriguez’s Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.; and Stanley “Tookie” Williams’s Rage, Black Redemption — as key representatives of the gang autobiography. It examines the conflict among violence, thrilling sensationalism, and the authorial desire to instruct and warn competing within these works. The narrative arcs of the memoirs themselves rest on the process of conversion from brutal, young gang bangers to nonviolent, enlightened citizens. The author analyzes the emergence, production, marketing, and reception of gang memoirs. Through interviews with Rodriguez, Shakur, and Barbara Cottman Becnel (Williams’s editor), she reveals both the writing and publishing processes. This book analyzes key narrative conventions, specifically how diction, dialogue, and narrative arcs shape the works. It also explores how the memoirs are consumed. This interdisciplinary study — fusing literary criticism, sociology, ethnography, reader-response study, and editorial theory — brings scholarly attention to a popular, much-discussed, but understudied modern expression.Less
The publication in 1993 of Sanyika Shakur’s Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member generated a huge amount of excitement in literary circles — New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani deemed it a “shocking and galvanic book” — and set off a new publishing trend of gang memoirs in the 1990s. The memoirs showcased tales of violent confrontation and territorial belonging but also offered many of the first journalistic and autobiographical accounts of the much-mythologized gang subculture. This book focuses on three of these memoirs — Shakur’s; Luis J. Rodriguez’s Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.; and Stanley “Tookie” Williams’s Rage, Black Redemption — as key representatives of the gang autobiography. It examines the conflict among violence, thrilling sensationalism, and the authorial desire to instruct and warn competing within these works. The narrative arcs of the memoirs themselves rest on the process of conversion from brutal, young gang bangers to nonviolent, enlightened citizens. The author analyzes the emergence, production, marketing, and reception of gang memoirs. Through interviews with Rodriguez, Shakur, and Barbara Cottman Becnel (Williams’s editor), she reveals both the writing and publishing processes. This book analyzes key narrative conventions, specifically how diction, dialogue, and narrative arcs shape the works. It also explores how the memoirs are consumed. This interdisciplinary study — fusing literary criticism, sociology, ethnography, reader-response study, and editorial theory — brings scholarly attention to a popular, much-discussed, but understudied modern expression.
Christine L. Garlough
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617037320
- eISBN:
- 9781621039242
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617037320.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
This book is the product of five years of field research with progressive activists associated with the School for Indian Languages and Cultures (SILC), South Asian Americans Leading Together ...
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This book is the product of five years of field research with progressive activists associated with the School for Indian Languages and Cultures (SILC), South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), the feminist dance collective Post Natyam, and the grassroots feminist political organization South Asian Sisters. It explores how traditional cultural forms may be critically appropriated by marginalized groups and used as rhetorical tools to promote deliberation and debate, spur understanding and connection, broaden political engagement, and advance particular social identities. Within this framework, the author examines how these performance activists advocate a political commitment to both justice and care, and to both deliberative discussion and deeper understanding. To consider how this might happen in diasporic performance contexts, she weaves together two lines of thinking. One grows from feminist theory and draws upon a core literature concerning the ethics of care. The other comes from rhetoric, philosophy, and political science literature on recognition and acknowledgment. This dual approach is used to reflect upon South Asian American women’s performances that address pressing social problems related to gender inequality, immigration rights, ethnic stereotyping, hate crimes, and religious violence. Case study chapters address the relatively unknown history of South Asian American rhetorical performances from the early 1800s to the present. Avant-garde feminist performances by the Post Natyam dance collective appropriate women’s folk practices, and Hindu goddess figures make rhetorical claims about hate crimes against South Asian Americans after 9/11.Less
This book is the product of five years of field research with progressive activists associated with the School for Indian Languages and Cultures (SILC), South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), the feminist dance collective Post Natyam, and the grassroots feminist political organization South Asian Sisters. It explores how traditional cultural forms may be critically appropriated by marginalized groups and used as rhetorical tools to promote deliberation and debate, spur understanding and connection, broaden political engagement, and advance particular social identities. Within this framework, the author examines how these performance activists advocate a political commitment to both justice and care, and to both deliberative discussion and deeper understanding. To consider how this might happen in diasporic performance contexts, she weaves together two lines of thinking. One grows from feminist theory and draws upon a core literature concerning the ethics of care. The other comes from rhetoric, philosophy, and political science literature on recognition and acknowledgment. This dual approach is used to reflect upon South Asian American women’s performances that address pressing social problems related to gender inequality, immigration rights, ethnic stereotyping, hate crimes, and religious violence. Case study chapters address the relatively unknown history of South Asian American rhetorical performances from the early 1800s to the present. Avant-garde feminist performances by the Post Natyam dance collective appropriate women’s folk practices, and Hindu goddess figures make rhetorical claims about hate crimes against South Asian Americans after 9/11.
Benjamin Fraser
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781846318702
- eISBN:
- 9781846317965
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846318702.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
This is the first book to use a Disability Studies approach to understanding cultural production in Spain. The author takes on a range of cultural products—from film to literature to the ...
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This is the first book to use a Disability Studies approach to understanding cultural production in Spain. The author takes on a range of cultural products—from film to literature to the comic/sequential art and, in the brief epigraph, the public exhibition of paintings. Benjamin Fraser is just as familiar with the work of key disability studies theorists (Lennard J. Davis, Licia Carlson, Eva Feder Kittay, David T. Mitchell, Sharon L. Snyder) as he is with Spanish culture and the discourse of art. While researchers and students of cinema will be particularly interested in the book's detailed analyses of the formal aspects of the films, comics, and novels discussed, readers from backgrounds in history, political science and sociology will all be able to appreciate discussions of contemporary legislation, advocacy groups, cultural perceptions, models of social integration and more. Although physical disabilities are discussed infrequently in the book, its real focus is on intellectual disabilities. Chapters address Down syndrome, autism, childhood disability and alexia/agnosia. The cultural products analyzed in depth are the films Yo también (2009), León y Olvido (2004), María y yo (2010), ¿Qué tienes debajo del sombrero± (2006), and Más allá del espejo (2007); the novels Angelicomio (1981) and Quieto (2008), the comics María y yo (2007) and ‘Supergestor’ (2011) as well as the ‘Trazos Singulares’ exhibit in Madrid (2011).Less
This is the first book to use a Disability Studies approach to understanding cultural production in Spain. The author takes on a range of cultural products—from film to literature to the comic/sequential art and, in the brief epigraph, the public exhibition of paintings. Benjamin Fraser is just as familiar with the work of key disability studies theorists (Lennard J. Davis, Licia Carlson, Eva Feder Kittay, David T. Mitchell, Sharon L. Snyder) as he is with Spanish culture and the discourse of art. While researchers and students of cinema will be particularly interested in the book's detailed analyses of the formal aspects of the films, comics, and novels discussed, readers from backgrounds in history, political science and sociology will all be able to appreciate discussions of contemporary legislation, advocacy groups, cultural perceptions, models of social integration and more. Although physical disabilities are discussed infrequently in the book, its real focus is on intellectual disabilities. Chapters address Down syndrome, autism, childhood disability and alexia/agnosia. The cultural products analyzed in depth are the films Yo también (2009), León y Olvido (2004), María y yo (2010), ¿Qué tienes debajo del sombrero± (2006), and Más allá del espejo (2007); the novels Angelicomio (1981) and Quieto (2008), the comics María y yo (2007) and ‘Supergestor’ (2011) as well as the ‘Trazos Singulares’ exhibit in Madrid (2011).
Alice P. Julier
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037634
- eISBN:
- 9780252094880
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037634.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
An insightful map of the landscape of social meals, this book argues that the ways in which Americans eat together play a central role in social life in the United States. Delving into a wide range ...
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An insightful map of the landscape of social meals, this book argues that the ways in which Americans eat together play a central role in social life in the United States. Delving into a wide range of research, the author analyzes etiquette and entertaining books from the past century and conducts interviews and observations of dozens of African American and non-ethnic white hosts and guests at dinner parties, potlucks, and buffets. It finds that when people invite friends, neighbors, or family members to share meals within their households, social inequalities involving race, economics, and gender reveal themselves in interesting ways: relationships are defined, boundaries of intimacy or distance are set, and people find themselves either excluded or included. The book focuses on one particular type of sociable activity, the shared meal—and more narrowly, the shared meal that occurs in households and includes non-kin. It explores some of the moral discourses and texts that shape our understanding of food and social life in the United States.Less
An insightful map of the landscape of social meals, this book argues that the ways in which Americans eat together play a central role in social life in the United States. Delving into a wide range of research, the author analyzes etiquette and entertaining books from the past century and conducts interviews and observations of dozens of African American and non-ethnic white hosts and guests at dinner parties, potlucks, and buffets. It finds that when people invite friends, neighbors, or family members to share meals within their households, social inequalities involving race, economics, and gender reveal themselves in interesting ways: relationships are defined, boundaries of intimacy or distance are set, and people find themselves either excluded or included. The book focuses on one particular type of sociable activity, the shared meal—and more narrowly, the shared meal that occurs in households and includes non-kin. It explores some of the moral discourses and texts that shape our understanding of food and social life in the United States.
Anna Servaes
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462104
- eISBN:
- 9781626745599
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462104.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
Travel with La Guiannée in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri and Prairie du Rocher, Illinois to glimpse the Franco-American cultural identity in these two Midwestern communities that have continued for over ...
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Travel with La Guiannée in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri and Prairie du Rocher, Illinois to glimpse the Franco-American cultural identity in these two Midwestern communities that have continued for over 250 years and even have survived language loss due in part to socio-political pressures. Cultural identity presents itself in many forms, not just language, and appears as festivals and traditional celebrations, which take on a more profound and visible role when language loss occurs. On New Year’s Eve, the guionneurs, those who participate in the celebration, disguise themselves in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century costume and travel throughout their community, singing and wishing New Year’s greetings to other members of the community. This celebration, like others, such as the Cajun Mardi Gras in Louisiana, Mumming in Ireland and Newfoundland, and the Carnaval de Binche, belong to a category of begging quest festivals that have existed since the Medieval Age. These festivals may also be adaptations or evolutions of pre-Christian pagan rituals. Part one creates an historical context of the development of the French mentality and cultural identity as well as an historical context of La Guiannée in order to compare and understand the contemporary identity and celebration. Part two analyzes the celebration to create an affirmation of community by using liminal theories proposed by Victor Turner, who states that during such rites or rituals, individuals undergo a transformation to reveal cultural information to others. Part three discusses cultural continuity and its relationship to language to reveal contemporary expressions of the Franco-American identity.Less
Travel with La Guiannée in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri and Prairie du Rocher, Illinois to glimpse the Franco-American cultural identity in these two Midwestern communities that have continued for over 250 years and even have survived language loss due in part to socio-political pressures. Cultural identity presents itself in many forms, not just language, and appears as festivals and traditional celebrations, which take on a more profound and visible role when language loss occurs. On New Year’s Eve, the guionneurs, those who participate in the celebration, disguise themselves in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century costume and travel throughout their community, singing and wishing New Year’s greetings to other members of the community. This celebration, like others, such as the Cajun Mardi Gras in Louisiana, Mumming in Ireland and Newfoundland, and the Carnaval de Binche, belong to a category of begging quest festivals that have existed since the Medieval Age. These festivals may also be adaptations or evolutions of pre-Christian pagan rituals. Part one creates an historical context of the development of the French mentality and cultural identity as well as an historical context of La Guiannée in order to compare and understand the contemporary identity and celebration. Part two analyzes the celebration to create an affirmation of community by using liminal theories proposed by Victor Turner, who states that during such rites or rituals, individuals undergo a transformation to reveal cultural information to others. Part three discusses cultural continuity and its relationship to language to reveal contemporary expressions of the Franco-American identity.
Mícheál Ó hAodha
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719083044
- eISBN:
- 9781781702437
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719083044.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
This book traces a number of common themes relating to the representation of Irish Travellers in Irish popular tradition and how these themes have impacted on Ireland's collective imagination. A ...
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This book traces a number of common themes relating to the representation of Irish Travellers in Irish popular tradition and how these themes have impacted on Ireland's collective imagination. A particular focus of the book is on the exploration of the Traveller as ‘Other’, an ‘Other’ who is perceived as both inside and outside Ireland's collective ideation. Frequently constructed as a group whose cultural tenets are in a dichotomous opposition to those of the ‘settled’ community, the book demonstrates the ambivalence and complexity of the Irish Traveller ‘Other’ in the context of a European postcolonial country. Not only have the construction and representation of Travellers always been less stable and ‘fixed’ than previously supposed, these images have been acted upon and changed by both the Traveller and non-Traveller communities as the situation has demanded. Drawing primarily on little-explored Irish language sources, the book demonstrates the fluidity of what is often assumed as reified or ‘fixed’. As evidenced in Irish-language cultural sources, the image of the Traveller is inextricably linked with the very concept of Irish identity itself. They are simultaneously the same and ‘Other’, and frequently function as exemplars of the hegemony of native Irish culture as set against colonial traditions.Less
This book traces a number of common themes relating to the representation of Irish Travellers in Irish popular tradition and how these themes have impacted on Ireland's collective imagination. A particular focus of the book is on the exploration of the Traveller as ‘Other’, an ‘Other’ who is perceived as both inside and outside Ireland's collective ideation. Frequently constructed as a group whose cultural tenets are in a dichotomous opposition to those of the ‘settled’ community, the book demonstrates the ambivalence and complexity of the Irish Traveller ‘Other’ in the context of a European postcolonial country. Not only have the construction and representation of Travellers always been less stable and ‘fixed’ than previously supposed, these images have been acted upon and changed by both the Traveller and non-Traveller communities as the situation has demanded. Drawing primarily on little-explored Irish language sources, the book demonstrates the fluidity of what is often assumed as reified or ‘fixed’. As evidenced in Irish-language cultural sources, the image of the Traveller is inextricably linked with the very concept of Irish identity itself. They are simultaneously the same and ‘Other’, and frequently function as exemplars of the hegemony of native Irish culture as set against colonial traditions.
John Early
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813040134
- eISBN:
- 9780813043838
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813040134.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
The book describes the interaction in Maya communities between Maya and Catholic theological worldviews from the middle to the end of the twentieth century. Both worldviews were experiencing periods ...
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The book describes the interaction in Maya communities between Maya and Catholic theological worldviews from the middle to the end of the twentieth century. Both worldviews were experiencing periods of crisis. The Maya crisis was rooted in loss of land and extreme poverty. This brought their theology into question since the covenant with their gods was supposed to protect their communities. The Catholic Church, following the Liberal suppression, had returned to Maya communities. It attempted to evangelize them according to the Catholic worldview formulated by the sixteenth-century Council of Trent. This did little to alleviate the Maya crisis. This shortcoming was systemic within Catholicism resulting in a crisis due to the inability of Tridentine theology to give meaning to people's lives in the twentieth century. A progressive sector of Catholicism attempted to confront the crisis by the Action Catholic movement with its foundation in biblical theology. In numerous Maya communities, groups studied biblical liberation and implemented it in programs of empowerment and social justice. But due to continuing structures of injustice, urban ladino Marxists infiltrated some Action Catholic communities resulting in armed rebellions. Assisting Maya liberation resulted in conversion experiences for some Catholic priests that led them to challenge the existing order of the Catholic Church and national governments. The study of the biblical liberation also led to the need for liberation from western theological categories by the development of a Maya Christian theology based on the Maya wisdom of ancestors manifested in the many myths of the Maya tradition.Less
The book describes the interaction in Maya communities between Maya and Catholic theological worldviews from the middle to the end of the twentieth century. Both worldviews were experiencing periods of crisis. The Maya crisis was rooted in loss of land and extreme poverty. This brought their theology into question since the covenant with their gods was supposed to protect their communities. The Catholic Church, following the Liberal suppression, had returned to Maya communities. It attempted to evangelize them according to the Catholic worldview formulated by the sixteenth-century Council of Trent. This did little to alleviate the Maya crisis. This shortcoming was systemic within Catholicism resulting in a crisis due to the inability of Tridentine theology to give meaning to people's lives in the twentieth century. A progressive sector of Catholicism attempted to confront the crisis by the Action Catholic movement with its foundation in biblical theology. In numerous Maya communities, groups studied biblical liberation and implemented it in programs of empowerment and social justice. But due to continuing structures of injustice, urban ladino Marxists infiltrated some Action Catholic communities resulting in armed rebellions. Assisting Maya liberation resulted in conversion experiences for some Catholic priests that led them to challenge the existing order of the Catholic Church and national governments. The study of the biblical liberation also led to the need for liberation from western theological categories by the development of a Maya Christian theology based on the Maya wisdom of ancestors manifested in the many myths of the Maya tradition.
Becky Taylor
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719075674
- eISBN:
- 9781781700853
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719075674.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
This book is a history of Britain's travelling communities in the twentieth century, drawing together detailed archival research at local and national levels to explore the impact of state and ...
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This book is a history of Britain's travelling communities in the twentieth century, drawing together detailed archival research at local and national levels to explore the impact of state and legislative developments on Travellers, as well as their experience of missions, education, war and welfare. It also covers legal developments affecting Travellers, whose history, it argues, must not be dealt with in isolation but as part of a wider history of British minorities. The book will be of interest to scholars and students concerned with minority groups, the welfare state and the expansion of government.Less
This book is a history of Britain's travelling communities in the twentieth century, drawing together detailed archival research at local and national levels to explore the impact of state and legislative developments on Travellers, as well as their experience of missions, education, war and welfare. It also covers legal developments affecting Travellers, whose history, it argues, must not be dealt with in isolation but as part of a wider history of British minorities. The book will be of interest to scholars and students concerned with minority groups, the welfare state and the expansion of government.