Author: Peter Burke
Edition: Third
Publisher: Ashgate
Pages: 472
Price: £25.00
ISBN: 9780754665076
When it was first published in 1978, this book had a major impact on the way we write history. This third edition shows that the history of popular culture - in any era - is central to the discipline. A new introduction gives an authoritative overview of the past 30 years. Burke deals with his critics, since his thesis remains provocative, and outlines advances in the conceptualisation of popular culture. The new edition reflects the greater conceptual sophistication of the terms "popular" and "culture" (helpfully defined), while retaining the broad geographical and linguistic sweep of the original. It also reveals the growth of the subject outside early modern Europe, from 15th-century Chinese ballads to 20th-century Nigerian chapbooks.
Who is it for? Any student of the early modern period, or of popular culture in any era.
Presentation: Nine chapters, each an essay reflecting on both popular culture and the ways in which we may approach and analyse it.
Would you recommend it? Yes - it is probably even more important now than it was in 1978.
