Next meeting (3.9.)

Dear all,

Thank you all again for bearing with me today. I think you did very well in applying different approaches to examples of popular culture, and I think you got an impression of the questions the various perspectives generate, the aspects they highlight and the interpretations they lead to. Today's playing around with influential perspectives should inform your future reading for this course, as it should help you to identify arguments and locate them in the research context.

Next week we will be talking about working-class leisure in late 19th and early 20th century Britain. For preparation, I would like you to read the seminal article by Gareth Stedman Jones, Working-class culture and working-class politics in London, 1870-1900, Journal of Social History 7 (1974), 460-508 (available online, accessible through the course page under 'syllabus'). Stedman Jones has famously called working-class culture of this period a 'culture of consolation', a notion that many subsequent historians have taken up and discussed. One of them is Andrew August, whose paper 'A "Culture of Consolation"?' which is also available online and you should also have a look at.

When reading, try to find out what is meant by 'culture of consolation' and assess the arguments of the two articles. Do you agree with Stedman Jones or with August, and why?

Next week, I would also like to talk about how to read scientific papers and take notes, so maybe you observe yourself while preparing the two articles, and could you please register the time you spend reading them?

I have uploaded today's lecture slides on Fronter. You find them in the 'rom' for HIS 2362. The room is open for participants who are registered as master students (HIS4362).

Best wishes,

Klaus