Editors:
- Makes a major contribution to our understanding of how the port was a crucible for the forging of distinctive urban and maritime identities
- Argues that ports were not isolated communities as they often shared aspects of a land-based maritime culture such as the ‘sailortown’
- Addresses a deficiency in port historiography by drawing from the work of leading international scholars
Buy it now
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.
Table of contents (14 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Urban-Maritime Cultures
-
Front Matter
-
-
Representations and Identities
-
Front Matter
-
-
Back Matter
About this book
Despite the port’s prominence in maritime history, its cultural significance has long been neglected in favour of its role within economic and imperial networks. Defined by their intersection of maritime and urban space, port towns were sites of complex cultural exchanges. This book, the product of international scholarship, offers innovative and challenging perspectives on the cultural histories of ports, ranging from eighteenth-century Africa to twentieth-century Australasia and Europe. The essays in this important collection explore two key themes; the nature and character of ‘sailortown’ culture and port-town life, and the representations of port towns that were forged both within and beyond urban-maritime communities. The book’s exploration of port town identities and cultures, and its use of a rich array of methodological approaches and cultural artefacts, will make it of great interest to both urban and maritime historians. It also represents a major contribution to the emerging, interdisciplinary field of coastal studies.
Reviews
“This is a rich collection of essays that deserves to be consulted by a wide public. Many new questions have been posed by the authors and many new lines of inquiry have been suggested.” (Patrick O’Flanagan, Journal of Social History, Vol. 52 (4), 2019)
“This book focuses on two core themes: the nature of urban maritime cultures; and representations of port towns. ... Scholars from a wide range of disciplines, from maritime and port studies to architecture, geography and ethnography, make this rich collection of essays a valued contribution to interdisciplinary port and maritime studies. ... This collection of studies is highly recommended ... and is an important contribution to port and maritime studies.” (Paul Th. Van de Laar, International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. 29 (4), November, 2017)
“Book makes a compelling case for study of the port that refigures its peripheral, othered status, and instead shows that port towns have much to offer not only the field of maritime studies, but also historians, geographers, literary and cultural scholars with an interest in histories of social identity, cultural formation and exchange and urban representation. … The chapters contribute to assessments of maritime identity, coastal cultures, and sea representations … will be instructive to scholars working on these themes.” (Charlotte Mathieson, The Mariner’s Mirror, Vol. 103 (3), August, 2017)
“In Port Towns and Urban Cultures the editors’ aim, through the exploration of a series of ports from around the globe, is to advance the reader's understanding of how each port was a crucible for the forging of distinctive urban and maritime identities. … This book most certainly contributes to urban-maritime history. Moreover, it is a good read.” (Jacob Bart Hak, The Northern Mariner, Le marin du nord, XXVI (4), October, 2016)
Editors and Affiliations
-
University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Brad Beaven
-
School of Social, Historical and Literar, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Karl Bell, Robert James
About the editors
Brad Beaven is Reader in Social and Cultural History at the University of Portsmouth, UK. He has written widely on British popular culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is the author of two monographs, Leisure, Citizenship and Working Class Men, 1850-1945 and Visions of Empire. Patriotism, Popular Culture and the City, 1870-1939.
Karl Bell is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Portsmouth, UK. His research explores the supernatural in nineteenth-century Britain. He is the author of two monographs, The Magical Imagination: Magic and Modernity in Urban England, 1780-1914 and The Legend of Spring-heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures.
Robert James is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Portsmouth, UK. He researches British society’s leisure habits in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, and is author of Popular Culture and Working-Class Taste in Britain 1930-39: a round of cheap diversions? and co-editor of Hollywood and the World.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Port Towns and Urban Cultures
Book Subtitle: International Histories of the Waterfront, c.1700—2000
Editors: Brad Beaven, Karl Bell, Robert James
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48316-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-48315-7Published: 23 May 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-69452-5Published: 02 January 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-48316-4Published: 04 May 2016
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 289
Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations
Topics: Cultural History, Urban History, World History, Global and Transnational History