Horse Racing and British Society in the Long Eighteenth Century

2018 Horse racing

Author : Mike Huggins
Release : 2018
Genre : Horse racing
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 188/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Horse Racing and British Society in the Long Eighteenth Century by : Mike Huggins

Download or read book Horse Racing and British Society in the Long Eighteenth Century written by Mike Huggins. This book was released on 2018. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Horse racing was the first and longest-lasting of Britain's national sports. This book explores the cultural world of racing and its relationship with British society in the long eighteenth century. It examines how and why race meetings changed from a marginal and informal interest for some of the elite to become the most significant leisure event of the summer season. Going beyond sports history, the book firmly places racing in its cultural, social, political and economic context. Racing's development was linked to the growth of commercialized leisure in the eighteenth century, a product of rising wealth amongst the middling group; changes in transport; the expansion of the newspaper press; and the new democratic and individualistic spirit of the age, especially the more flexible social codes of the late Georgian and Regency eras. In this book, horse racing emerges as the first 'proto-modern' sport, with links with the widespread popularity of gaming and betting which forced ever-increasing codification, regulation and event organization. Racing also gave expression to highly nuanced concepts of local, regional, national, class, gender (primarily male) and political identities. Drawing on the fields of social, cultural and sports history and utilizing many hitherto ignored or under-exploited sources, the book revises current histories of eighteenth-century leisure and sport, showing how horse racing links to debates about commercialization, consumer behaviour, the 'urban renaissance' and human-horse relationships. It also sheds new light not only on racehorse ownership, but also on the hitherto hidden world of racing's key professionals: jockeys, trainers, bloodstock breeders, stud grooms and stable hands. MIKE HUGGINS is Emeritus Professor of Cultural History at the University of Cumbria.

Gambling in Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century

2022-03-17 History

Author : Bob Harris
Release : 2022-03-17
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 638/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Gambling in Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century by : Bob Harris

Download or read book Gambling in Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century written by Bob Harris. This book was released on 2022-03-17. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: English society in the eighteenth century was allegedly marked by a 'gambling mania'. Drawing on a vast range of new empirical evidence, Bob Harris explores the growth and prevalence of gambling across Britain and investigates who gambled, on what, and why.

Becoming Centaur

2017-03-21 History

Author : Monica Mattfeld
Release : 2017-03-21
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 72X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Becoming Centaur by : Monica Mattfeld

Download or read book Becoming Centaur written by Monica Mattfeld. This book was released on 2017-03-21. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study of the relationship between men and their horses in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England, Monica Mattfeld explores the experience of horsemanship and how it defined one’s gendered and political positions within society. Men of the period used horses to transform themselves, via the image of the centaur, into something other—something powerful, awe-inspiring, and mythical. Focusing on the manuals, memoirs, satires, images, and ephemera produced by some of the period’s most influential equestrians, Mattfeld examines how the concepts and practices of horse husbandry evolved in relation to social, cultural, and political life. She looks closely at the role of horses in the world of Thomas Hobbes and William Cavendish; the changes in human social behavior and horse handling ushered in by elite riding houses such as Angelo’s Academy and Mr. Carter’s; and the public perception of equestrian endeavors, from performances at places such as Astley’s Amphitheatre to the satire of Henry William Bunbury. Throughout, Mattfeld shows how horses aided the performance of idealized masculinity among communities of riders, in turn influencing how men were perceived in regard to status, reputation, and gender. Drawing on human-animal studies, gender studies, and historical studies, Becoming Centaur offers a new account of masculinity that reaches beyond anthropocentrism to consider the role of animals in shaping man.

British Sporting Literature and Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century

2016-03-09 Literary Criticism

Author : Sharon Harrow
Release : 2016-03-09
Genre : Literary Criticism
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 42X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis British Sporting Literature and Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century by : Sharon Harrow

Download or read book British Sporting Literature and Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century written by Sharon Harrow. This book was released on 2016-03-09. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sport as it is largely understood today was invented during the long eighteenth century when the modern rules of sport were codified; sport emerged as a business, a spectacle, and a performance; and gaming organized itself around sporting culture. Examining the underexplored intersection of sport, literature, and culture, this collection situates sport within multiple contexts, including religion, labor, leisure time, politics, nationalism, gender, play, and science. A poetics, literature, and culture of sport swelled during the era, influencing artists such as John Collett and writers including Lord Byron, Jonathan Swift, and Henry Fielding. This volume brings together literary scholars and historians of sport to demonstrate the ubiquity of sport to eighteenth-century life, the variety of literary and cultural representations of sporting experiences, and the evolution of sport from rural pastimes to organized, regular events of national and international importance. Each essay offers in-depth readings of both material practices and representations of sport as they relate to, among other subjects, recreational sports, the Cotswold games, clothing, women archers, tennis, celebrity athletes, and the theatricality of boxing. Taken together, the essays in this collection offer valuable multiple perspectives on reading sport during the century when sport became modern.

Riding to Arms

2022-01-18 History

Author : Charles Caramello
Release : 2022-01-18
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 328/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Riding to Arms by : Charles Caramello

Download or read book Riding to Arms written by Charles Caramello. This book was released on 2022-01-18. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Horses and horsemen played central roles in modern European warfare from the Renaissance to the Great War of 1914-1918, not only determining victory in battle, but also affecting the rise and fall of kingdoms and nations. When Shakespeare's Richard III cried, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!" he attested to the importance of the warhorse in history and embedded the image of the warhorse in the cultural memory of the West. In Riding to Arms: A History of Horsemanship and Mounted Warfare, Charles Caramello examines the evolution of horsemanship—the training of horses and riders—and its relationship to the evolution of mounted warfare over four centuries. He explains how theories of horsemanship, navigating between art and utility, eventually settled on formal manège equitation merged with outdoor hunting equitation as the ideal combination for modern cavalry. He also addresses how the evolution of firepower and the advent of mechanized warfare eventually led to the end of horse cavalry. Riding to Arms tracks the history of horsemanship and cavalry through scores of primary texts ranging from Federico Grisone's Rules of Riding (1550) to Lt.-Colonel E.G. French's Good-Bye to Boot and Saddle (1951). It offers not only a history of horsemen, horse soldiers, and horses, but also a survey of the seminal texts that shaped that history.

Popular eBooks

Horse Racing and British Society in the Long Eighteenth Century

Gambling in Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century

Becoming Centaur

British Sporting Literature and Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century

Riding to Arms

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