Weeping Britannia : portrait of a nation in tears / Thomas Dixon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dixon, Thomas, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Crying--Great Britain--History.

Crying.

Great Britain--Social conditions.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (451 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"There is a persistent myth about the British: that we are a nation of stoics, with stiff upper lips, repressed emotions, and inactive lachrymal glands. Weeping Britannia - the first history of crying in Britain - comprehensively debunks this myth. Far from being a persistent element in the 'national character', the notion of the British stiff upper lip was in fact the product of a relatively brief and militaristic period of our past, from about 1870 to 1945. In earlier times we were a nation of proficient, sometimes virtuosic moral weepers. To illustrate this perhaps surprising fact, Thomas Dixon charts six centuries of weeping Britons, and theories about them, from the medieval mystic Margery Kempe in the early fifteenth century, to Paul Gascoigne's famous tears in the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup. In between, the book includes the tears of some of the most influential figures in British history, from Oliver Cromwell to Margaret Thatcher (not forgetting George III, Queen Victoria, Charles Darwin, and Winston Churchill along the way). But the history of weeping in Britain is not simply one of famous tear-stained individuals. These tearful micro-histories all contribute to a bigger picture of changing emotional ideas and styles over the centuries, touching on many other fascinating areas of our history. ..." --Publisher description.

Contents:

""Cover ""; ""Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears ""; ""Copyright ""; ""Dedication ""; ""Contents ""; ""List of Illustrations ""; ""Epigraph ""; ""Introduction: I Am A Rock ""; ""I. Piety""; ""1: Looking for Margery ""; ""2: Marie Magdalen's Funeral Teares ""; ""3: Titus Andronicus: Ha, Ha, Ha! ""; ""4: The Actor, the Witch,and the Puritan ""; ""II. Enthusiasm""; ""5: Stop, Gabriel! ""; ""6: Four Hundred Pounds to Cry ""; ""7: The Man of Feeling ""; ""8: The French Revolution ""; ""III. Pathos""; ""9: The Sanity of George III ""; ""10: Strange Blessing on the Nation ""

""11: Little Nell Without Laughing """"12: Damp Justice ""; ""IV. Restraint""; ""13: Old Ladies and Other Animals ""; ""14: The 'If ' Upper Lip ""; ""15: Patriotism is not Enough ""; ""16: Thank You for Coming Back to Me ""; ""V. Feelings""; ""17: Grief Observed ""; ""18: Ha'way the Lads! ""; ""19: The Thatcher Tears ""; ""20: Sensibility Regained ""; ""Conclusion: I Am the Sea ""; ""Notes""; ""Introduction""; ""Chapter 1. Looking for Margery""; ""Chapter 2. Marie Magdalen's Funeral Teares""; ""Chapter 3. Titus Andronicus: Ha, Ha, Ha!""; ""Chapter 4. The Actor, the Witch, and the Puritan""

""Chapter 5. Stop, Gabriel!""""Chapter 6. Four Hundred Pounds to Cry""; ""Chapter 7. The Man of Feeling""; ""Chapter 8. The French Revolution""; ""Chapter 9. The Sanity of George III""; ""Chapter 10. Strange Blessing on the Nation""; ""Chapter 11. Little Nell Without Laughing""; ""Chapter 12. Damp Justice""; ""Chapter 13. Old Ladies and Other Animals""; ""Chapter 14. The 'If ' Upper Lip""; ""Chapter 15. Patriotism is not Enough""; ""Chapter 16. Thank You for Coming Back to Me""; ""Chapter 17. Grief Observed""; ""Chapter 18. Ha'way the Lads!""; ""Chapter 19. The Thatcher Tears""

""Chapter 20. Sensibility Regained""""Conclusion""; ""Online Resources""; ""Publicly Available""; ""Available Through Subscription""; ""Further Reading""; ""Theories of Weeping""; ""Tears in History""; ""History of Emotions""; ""Religion and Feeling""; ""Sorrow and Sadness in the English Renaissance""; ""Drama and Theatre""; ""Sensibility, Sympathy, and Sentimentality""; ""Gender""; ""Cinema""; ""Englishness""; ""Politics""; ""Death, Grief, and Mourning""; ""Acknowledgements""; ""Picture Credits""; ""Index""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed August 6, 2015).

ISBN:

0-19-166357-3

0-19-166356-5

OCLC:

914706332