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  • Textbook
  • © 1998

Youth, Popular Culture and Moral Panics

Penny Gaffs to Gangsta-Rap, 1830–1996

Authors:

  • A superb means for students to understand how popular culture and official culture relate to one another Invaluable for those wishing to look at the underside of British and American mass culture

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
  2. Introduction

    • John Springhall
    Pages 1-10
  3. Mass Media Panic: The 1980s and 1990s

    • John Springhall
    Pages 147-155
  4. Conclusions

    • John Springhall
    Pages 156-162
  5. Back Matter

    Pages 163-218

About this book

The international controversy (highlighted in Britain by the Bulger case) over the relationship between video nasties and crime is one that has a long prior history. Do books, films or magazines create a corrupting environment which encourages crime and moral decay?
Dr. Springhall has written a highly perceptive and entertaining account of how commercial culture in Britain and America has been viewed, since its inception during the Industrial Revolution, as a force likely to undermine national morals. There has been wave after wave of scares: from the Victorian penny gaff theatres and penny dreadful novels to Hollywood gangster films, and American horror comics. A final chapter refers to video nasties, violence on television, 'gansta-rap' and computer games, each in turn playing the role of folk devils which must be causing delinquency. Why particular issues suddenly galvanize public attention, and why so many people have associated delinquency with entertainment, form the fascinating subjects of this groundbreaking book.

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Ulster, Coleraine, UK

    John Springhall

About the author

JOHN SPRINGHALL is Reader in History at the University of Ulster, Coleraine.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Youth, Popular Culture and Moral Panics

  • Book Subtitle: Penny Gaffs to Gangsta-Rap, 1830–1996

  • Authors: John Springhall

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27458-1

  • Publisher: Red Globe Press London

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies Collection, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: John Springhall 1998

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 230

  • Additional Information: Previously published under the imprint Palgrave

  • Topics: Social History