Horseracing and the British 1919-39 (Studies in Popular Culture) by Mike Huggins |
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An exploration the value of racing to the working classes, the gentry and aristocracy, tracing the sport's development in an age of great scientific advances alongside the rise of the popular press.
From the Author
a great read, with much original material
This is a book that I really enjoyed writing. The period between 1790 and 1914 is a fascinating and very important time for British racing, a time when it gradually took the form which made it what it is today. When I began the book I thought that racing in Victorian times was only for the wealhy and for ordinary working men, and that it was opposed by middle class society. It soon became clear that much of British society was interested in racing, went to race meetings, bet on horses, or bet with credit or street bookmakers, and that many of the middle classes were great supporters.
An exploration the value of racing to the working classes, the gentry and aristocracy, tracing the sport's development in an age of great scientific advances alongside the rise of the popular press.
From the Author
a great read, with much original material
This is a book that I really enjoyed writing. The period between 1790 and 1914 is a fascinating and very important time for British racing, a time when it gradually took the form which made it what it is today. When I began the book I thought that racing in Victorian times was only for the wealhy and for ordinary working men, and that it was opposed by middle class society. It soon became clear that much of British society was interested in racing, went to race meetings, bet on horses, or bet with credit or street bookmakers, and that many of the middle classes were great supporters.
I had already heard about the past of famous courses like Newmarket, Epsom or Ascot; about Classic winners like St Simon, Ormonde, Gladiateur or West Australians; or champion jockeys like Fred Archer and Nat Flatman. This book is not about them, but about the ordinary people of racing, and the great bulk of the British population who gave racing their support. It looks at the meaning of racing to the aristocracy and in middle and working-class life and culture. The book also explores the life, vitality and excitements of the course itself, with its prostitutes, pickpockets and policemen, the bookmakers and bettors, the grandstands and drinking booths, the consumption of food and drink.
There was so much opposition to racing from a minority of reformists that one might have thought racing could never survive. But it was mainly rhetoric. Organisations like the National Anti-gambling League failed almost totally to damage racing. Research turned up a number of real surprises. Racing turned out to be commercialised from much earlier on than I had thought. Racing owed far more to the expansion of the telegraph system and the popular press than the Victorian railway system. The Jockey Club, which I had thought had always been the ruling body, turned out to have little power outside Newmarket and a few other elite courses like Epsom until the 1860s.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Inside This Book
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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