A people's history of classics : class and Greco-Roman antiquity in Britain and Ireland 1689 to 1939 / Edith Hall and Henry Stead.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hall, Edith, 1959- author.

Stead, Henry, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civilization, Classical--Study and teaching--Great Britain--History.

Civilization, Classical.

Civilization, Classical--Study and teaching--Ireland--History.

Working class--Great Britain--Intellectual life.

Working class.

Working class--Ireland--Intellectual life.

Great Britain--Civilization--Greek influences.

Great Britain.

Great Britain--Civilization--Roman influences.

Ireland--Civilization--Greek influences.

Ireland.

Ireland--Civilization--Roman influences.

Great Britain--Intellectual life.

Ireland--Intellectual life.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (629 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

2020.

London ; New York, New York : Routledge, 2020.

Summary:

A People's History of Classics explores the influence of the classical past on the lives of working-class people, whose voices have been almost completely excluded from previous histories of classical scholarship and pedagogy, in Britain and Ireland from the late 17th to the early 20th century. This volume challenges the prevailing scholarly and public assumption that the intimate link between the exclusive intellectual culture of British elites and the study of the ancient Greeks and Romans and their languages meant that working-class culture was a 'Classics-Free Zone'. Making use of diverse sources of information, both published and unpublished, in archives, museums and libraries across the United Kingdom and Ireland, Hall and Stead examine the working-class experience of classical culture from the Bill of Rights in 1689 to the outbreak of World War II. They analyse a huge volume of data, from individuals, groups, regions and activities, in a huge range of sources including memoirs, autobiographies, Trade Union collections, poetry, factory archives, artefacts and documents in regional museums. This allows a deeper understanding not only of the many examples of interaction with the Classics, but also what these cultural interactions signified to the working poor: from the promise of social advancement, to propaganda exploited by the elites, to covert and overt class war. A People's History of Classics offers a fascinating and insightful exploration of the many and varied engagements with Greece and Rome among the working classes in Britain and Ireland, and is a must-read not only for classicists, but also for students of British and Irish social, intellectual and political history in this period. Further, it brings new historical depth and perspectives to public debates around the future of classical education, and should be read by anyone with an interest in educational policy in Britain today.

Contents:

Motives and methods

The invention of classics

Working-class readers

18th-century working-class poets

Classics and class in life-writing

Working-class classics via the visual environment

Staging class struggle classically

Dissenting classics

Workers' educational classics

Classics & class in Ireland

Scottish working classes

Caractacus and Lloyd-George's recruiting drive in Wales

Seditious classicists

Underdog professors

Ragged-trousered philologists

Hinterland Greek

Classical underworlds

Class and the classical body

Gods and heroes of the proletariat

Shoemakers

Pottery workers

Miners

Socialist and communist scholars

Soldiers : Dai and Diomedes on the Somme

Theatre practitioners.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-315-44660-X

1-315-44658-8

9781315446608

OCLC:

1143015188