Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2017

Shame and Modernity in Britain

1890 to the Present

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Offers a series of narrative micro histories, each of which considers an aspect of shame at a specific moment of time
  • Maps how shame persisted in Britain into the twentieth century, providing a historical context for the early twenty-first century revisiting of concepts of shame
  • Case studies give the reader an insight into the precise behaviour of individuals when confronted by shame, beyond the theoretical debates which surround scholarship on the emotions and shame

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

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.

About this book

This book argues that traditional images and practices associated with shame did not recede with the coming of modern Britain. Following the authors’ acclaimed and successful nineteenth century book, Cultures of Shame, this new monograph moves forward to look at shame in the modern era. As such, it investigates how social and cultural expectations in both war and peace, changing attitudes to sexual identities and sexual behaviour, new innovations in media and changing representations of reputation, all became sites for shame’s reconstruction, making it thoroughly modern and in tune with twentieth century Britain’s expectations. Using a suite of detailed micro-histories, the book examines a wide expanse of twentieth century sites of shame  including  conceptions of cowardice/conscientious objection during the First World War, fraud and clerical scandal in the interwar years, the shame associated with both abortion and sexual behaviour redefined in different ways as ‘deviant’, shoplifting in the 1980s and lastly, how homosexuality shifted from ‘Coming Out’ to embracing ‘Pride’, finally rediscovering the positivity of shame with the birth of the ‘Queer’.  

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of History, Philosophy and Religion, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Anne-Marie Kilday, David S. Nash

About the authors

Anne-Marie Kilday is Professor of Criminal History, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Oxford Brookes University, UK. She has published widely in the area of British Criminal History and has specialised particularly in the history of violent crime, where she is an internationally recognised scholar. She has published several monographs on forms of violent female criminality as well as the nineteenth century study Cultures of Shame (with David Nash) for Palgrave.

David Nash is Professor of History at Oxford Brookes University, UK. He has published monographs in the areas of Secularism and Secularisation as well as British Criminal History with an internationally renowned specialism in the history of blasphemy in Europe and the English speaking world. He has also published the nineteenth century study Cultures of Shame (with Anne-Marie Kilday) for Palgrave.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Shame and Modernity in Britain

  • Book Subtitle: 1890 to the Present

  • Authors: Anne-Marie Kilday, David S. Nash

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-31919-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-230-35933-8Published: 28 February 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-59534-1Published: 06 November 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-31919-7Published: 20 February 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XII, 323

  • Number of Illustrations: 8 b/w illustrations, 2 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: History of Britain and Ireland, Social History, History of Modern Europe

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access