Dusty Bob : a cultural history of dustmen, 1780-1870 / Brian Maidment.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maidment, Brian.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Refuse collectors--England--History--19th century.

Refuse collectors.

Refuse and refuse disposal in literature--History--19th century.

Refuse and refuse disposal in literature.

Refuse and refuse disposal in art--History--19th century.

Refuse and refuse disposal in art.

History.

England.

Physical Description:

xvi, 251 pages, 16 pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK ; New York, NY : Manchester University Press ; New York, NY : Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 2007.

Summary:

Why did dustmen exercise an extended hold over the imagination of many Regency and Victorian artists and writers, including George Cruikshank, Henry Mayhew, Charles Dickens as well as numerous little known dramatists, caricaturists, print makers, journalists and novelists? This book, the first study of the cultural representation of the dust trade, provides many varied answers to this question by showing the ways in which London dustmen were associated with ideas of contamination, dirt, noise, violence, wealth, consumerism and threat. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, including plays, novels, reportage and, especially, visual culture, "Dusty Bob" describes the ways in which dustmen were perceived and mythologized in the first seventy years of the nineteenth century.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 242-248) and index.

ISBN:

9780719052835

0719052831

OCLC:

148905102