Liberal Lives and Activist Repertoires: Political Performance and Victorian Social Reform

This ambitious study traces the strategies of human rights activists to show how world-changing reform movements were shaped by women and men from modest backgrounds who were deeply attuned to the power of performance. Tracy C. Davis explores nineteenth-century reform campaigns through the pioneering work of a family of activists - prominent anti-slavery lecturer George Thompson, his daughter Amelia (the first female theatre and music critic for a British daily newspaper) and her husband, the political organizer Frederick Chesson. Engaging in some of the most important social struggles of the late Georgian and Victorian periods - including abolition, enfranchisement, and anti-genocide - this book reveals how two generations' insights into performance consolidated into activist tactics that persist today. Characterised by a skilful deployment of performance theory alongside deep and wide-ranging historical knowledge, this ground-breaking work demonstrates what 'dramaturgy' can teach us about 'history'.

Author: Tracy C. Davis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 06/01/2023
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 9.06h x 6.30w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781009297530