Writing Europe into British Cultural History (CBH theme issue on Popular Culture)

Contemporary British History 35 (2021) 3

In Britain the history of culture – and popular culture especially – is often written within a national paradigm. Books about British pop music, British cinema, British music hall, British musical and so on abound. If other parts of the world are included at all, then mostly with an eye to the United States, or regions belonging to the (former) British Empire or the Commonwealth. Contacts, connections and transfers between Britain and continental Europe are often ignored. The CBH theme issue “Writing Europe into British Cultural History” wants to highlight these omissions and to try out ways to bring them into focus.

A programmatic introduction by Tobias Becker and Felix Fuhg is followed by five case studies looking at specific examples from film, fashion, food, travel and music from the 1960s to the 1970s:

International Sexpionage! European Popular Film on Sixties British Cinema Screens” by Adrian Smith

Did Britain rule the world again? The international fashion market and the continental look in 1960s London” by Felix Fuhg

Enthusing about green peppers: the Europeanisation of British food culture in post-war Britain, 1960-1975” by Joanne Hollows

Flight to the Sun: Package tours and the Europeanisation of British holiday culture in the 1970s and 1980s” by Sina Fabian

NEU! Europe: Krautrock and British representations of West German countercultures during the 1970s” by Patrick Glen

Tobias Becker

Tobias Becker is a lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin who has published widely on the history of popular culture since the 1800s. His books include "Inszenierte Moderne. Populäres Theater in Berlin und London, 1880-1930" (2014) "Yesterday: A New History of Nostalgia" (2023) and "Popular Culture in Europe since 1800" (2023; written with Len Platt).

More Posts - Website


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Tobias Becker (January 6, 2022). Writing Europe into British Cultural History (CBH theme issue on Popular Culture). PopHistory. Retrieved October 15, 2024 from https://doi.org/10.58079/sz7g


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.