The Circus Age: Culture and Society under the American Big Top

A century ago, daily life ground to a halt when the circus rolled into town. Across America, banks closed, schools canceled classes, farmers left their fields, and factories shut down so that everyone could go to the show. In this entertaining and provocative book, Janet Davis links the flowering of the early-twentieth-century American railroad circus to such broader historical developments as the rise of big business, the breakdown of separate spheres for men and women, and the genesis of the United States' overseas empire. In the process, she casts the circus as a powerful force in consolidating the nation's identity as a modern industrial society and world power.

Davis explores the multiple shows that took place under the big top, from scripted performances to exhibitions of laborers assembling and tearing down tents to impromptu spectacles of audiences brawling, acrobats falling, and animals rampaging. Turning Victorian notions of gender, race, and nationhood topsy-turvy, the circus brought its vision of a rapidly changing world to spectators--rural as well as urban--across the nation. Even today, Davis contends, the influence of the circus continues to resonate in popular representations of gender, race, and the wider world.

Author: Janet M. Davis
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 09/23/2002
Pages: 360
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.11lbs
Size: 9.32h x 6.28w x 0.82d
ISBN: 9780807853993

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/24/2002 pg. 47

About the Author
Davis, Janet M.: - Janet M. Davis is associate professor of American studies and history at the University of Texas at Austin.